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Trick-or-Treat Safety Tips
Marisa Abbe shares Halloween safety tips for parents with young kids.
Featured Speaker:
Marisa Abbe, PhD, CPSTI
Marisa Abbe is a Medical Anthropologist who has worked in Injury Prevention for 10 years. She is currently the Manager of the Injury Prevention Service at Children’s Health. She focuses her research and prevention efforts on child passenger safety, drowning prevention and safe sleep. Transcription:
Trick-or-Treat Safety Tips
Prakash Chandran (Host): From candy to costumes, Halloween is a fun-filled time for children. But it’s also a night that they are more at risk for injury than any other day of the year. Today, we’re going to discuss safety tips like costume safety, staying visible, and inspecting candy and here to help us out is our resident expert, Dr. Marisa Abbe, the Injury Prevention Manager at Children’s Health. This is Children’s Health Checkup, where we answer parents’ most common questions about raising healthy and happy kids. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, Marisa, as a parent myself, I think all of us want a trick free evening for our children. But let’s just start the conversation with why it’s so important to raise awareness about keeping kids safe during Halloween.
Marisa Abbe, PhD, CPSTI (Guest): Absolutely. Yes, like you, Halloween is my favorite holiday and we love dressing up and going trick or treating but when I go out with my son, I’ve taught him some specific safety lessons on pedestrian safety because Halloween is the most dangerous night of the year for our kiddos. So, on average, we know, across the country, children are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car and die from that injury on Halloween night over any other time of the year.
Host: Got it. you know I was looking at the website at www.Children’s.com/Halloween, great resource there. There are ten great safety tips to stay safe while you are trick or treating and the very first one is visibility. So, why don’t we dive right into it and maybe talk to us a little bit about the importance of visibility and how we can stay more visible while we are trick or treating with out children.
Dr. Abbe: Absolutely. So, it’s getting to be fall. It’s getting dark earlier and the main thing that we want is children to be visible to drivers. And so, depending on their costume, we want you to add plenty of reflective tape or stickers to their costumes or bags. Kids can carry flashlights or wear those glow stick necklaces so that they are super visible when crossing the street. And we also want kids to see as well and so instead of maybe having big masks that might obstruct their vision; we could choose face paint or makeup instead of those larger masks over their face.
Host: Yeah, because they need to be able to see the cars as well because it’s not only the cars seeing them, it’s like sometimes they have these massive masks and they can’t see anything. So, they are stumbling around, right?
Dr. Abbe: or they are walking through yards and they trip over something in the yard.
Host: Right, right. I’m sure that happens a lot. So, looking at some of the other tips, especially around the costume, what other things should parents or children be mindful of when putting on their costume?
Dr. Abbe: Well, we want them to be – to fit their bodies well so that they don’t have floppy clown shoes and things that might be too big for them that will help them just trip right over whatever they might be walking into. So, making sure the costume fits well. Making sure they don’t have big masks. Those will be the main tips to keep them from falling.
Host: And what about older kids that are heading out without their parents? What should parents know and share with their children in order to stay safe?
Dr. Abbe: Yeah, I’m glad you asked that. I think that’s probably the most important tip. Common sense prevention tips for Halloween are the same as other times that your child might be walking in the neighborhood or walking to school. So, we know that kids should not be walking by themselves until they are around nine or ten. And this is because the part of our brain that accurately judges the speed of a car and how quickly it’s coming and that distance; that doesn’t really develop until the age of 10 or 11. And so kids, even though they might be able to see a car coming; they aren’t able to determine if they have enough time to cross the street until they are that age.
So, we want the adults to walk with the children on Halloween if they are younger than 10. But other tips that kids should know is when they are crossing the street, they shouldn’t just run across or dart out between parked cars. We want them to look both ways, but it’s left first and then right and then left again is kind of how we want them to cross the street.
Host: Yeah, definitely making sure to look twice and three times especially during Halloween. But you know one of the things that I’m curious – we’re talking about pedestrian safety for the kids, but as a driver that is potentially driving through some of these neighborhoods where kids are trick or treating and it feels like they are starting earlier and earlier. What advice might you have for drivers in order to make sure that it’s safe on both sides of the table?
Dr. Abbe: Right and I don’t know about your kids, but mine have already eaten candy before they go trick or treating and so they’re excited, you know, it’s a fun time. They are hyped up on sugar and they’re probably not being as safe as they normally would when they are walking to the bus stop or wherever, so we know that kids are already going to move in unpredictable ways on that evening. So, drivers definitely should slow down. We should turn our headlights on early so that they see us coming in that dusk period where it’s not quite dark yet. Be alert in the neighborhoods when you are driving home. In turn, exit your driveway carefully. That’s kind of a danger zone as you are backing out of your driveway, you may not see children coming in your rear view mirror or in your back up camera so make sure that you enter and exit your driveway carefully. And of course, avoid your cell phone. Don’t be a distracted driver especially in the neighborhoods.
Host: Yeah, absolutely. It’s especially important to really be on the lookout and have your full attention on the road especially on Halloween night. You made a lot of great points there. I think one of the hardest things that I see in this list is inspect candy. And it says have children avoid eating candy until you’ve had the chance to inspect it first. Wow. How do you do that and tell us a little bit about why that’s important.
Dr. Abbe: Well, what we do at the end of the night is kind of dump everything out and of course, try to make a rule around how many pieces that they are going to eat before they go to bed or per day or whatever. But just look over, make sure that the wrappers aren’t torn, and that everything looks like it came from the store.
Host: Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest problem I have with my kids is they want to eat it as they get it. I say slow down a little bit. Because of the reasons that you mentioned but there’s also allergies as well, right? Some kids may have allergies and that can be difficult to manage when kids are trick or treating and see something sweet. So, maybe talk a little bit about how parents might be a little bit safer in terms of provisioning candy for their children and making sure that they are kind of allergy free.
Dr. Abbe: Absolutely. I mean I think if your child has a major food allergy, like a peanut allergy; hopefully you can brush up on which candy is going to contain those items that might be dangerous for your child to eat. Possibly if that’s the case, that you have some extra snacks that they could eat if they happen to get the candy that they are not supposed to eat. And then of course, we always have like pencils and stickers and things to hand out, a glow in the dark bugs, that kids can choose instead of choosing candies so that we are able to give something fun to everybody.
Host: Yeah, that’s a really good tip for the people that are staying at home. It doesn’t have to be that massive bag of candy from the grocery store. There are so many things that are fun that you can hand out. So, that’s a great one. I see one here around never entering homes and I totally understand this notion of stranger danger and not entering someone else’s home but what about if it’s a haunted house? Some people will set up their homes to where they want you to go through and experience everything they’ve set up. What are your thoughts around that?
Dr. Abbe: That’s a great question. I think if you are with them and you ‘re familiar with the neighbor or the neighborhood, that you would use your best judgement to go with them into the haunted house. But I wouldn’t – I would tell them never to enter the haunted house by themselves.
Host: Yeah, that’s really good advice. I think as a parent, just making sure that – one of the things you said that’s important there is having an understanding and a comfort level with the neighborhood that your child is going to first. So, you can get a sense of the type of people that live there, the homes that they are going to be visiting so they can stay as safe as possible. That’s really good. Just to kind of wrap up here, is there anything else that we didn’t cover today that you’d like parents or children to know about staying safe during Halloween?
Dr. Abbe: I think we hit on everything. What I do because I have a six year old and so we are crossing the street constantly, right, you go from one side of the street to the other as you cross to do trick or treating and it’s a great time to practice and teach them how to cross the street safely because you are doing it so often. And it’s also a great time to model safe pedestrian behaviors. So, we kind of use it as a nice teaching time as well as the fun time.
Host: Great advice. And I really appreciate your time today Dr. Abbe. So, that’s Dr. Marisa Abbe, the Injury Prevention Manager at Children’s Health. Thanks for listening to Children’s Health Checkup. And you can head to www.childrens.com/halloween to see those tips that we were talking about today. If you found this podcast helpful, please rate and review or share the episode and please follow Children's Health on your social channels. Thanks and we’ll talk next time.
Trick-or-Treat Safety Tips
Prakash Chandran (Host): From candy to costumes, Halloween is a fun-filled time for children. But it’s also a night that they are more at risk for injury than any other day of the year. Today, we’re going to discuss safety tips like costume safety, staying visible, and inspecting candy and here to help us out is our resident expert, Dr. Marisa Abbe, the Injury Prevention Manager at Children’s Health. This is Children’s Health Checkup, where we answer parents’ most common questions about raising healthy and happy kids. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, Marisa, as a parent myself, I think all of us want a trick free evening for our children. But let’s just start the conversation with why it’s so important to raise awareness about keeping kids safe during Halloween.
Marisa Abbe, PhD, CPSTI (Guest): Absolutely. Yes, like you, Halloween is my favorite holiday and we love dressing up and going trick or treating but when I go out with my son, I’ve taught him some specific safety lessons on pedestrian safety because Halloween is the most dangerous night of the year for our kiddos. So, on average, we know, across the country, children are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car and die from that injury on Halloween night over any other time of the year.
Host: Got it. you know I was looking at the website at www.Children’s.com/Halloween, great resource there. There are ten great safety tips to stay safe while you are trick or treating and the very first one is visibility. So, why don’t we dive right into it and maybe talk to us a little bit about the importance of visibility and how we can stay more visible while we are trick or treating with out children.
Dr. Abbe: Absolutely. So, it’s getting to be fall. It’s getting dark earlier and the main thing that we want is children to be visible to drivers. And so, depending on their costume, we want you to add plenty of reflective tape or stickers to their costumes or bags. Kids can carry flashlights or wear those glow stick necklaces so that they are super visible when crossing the street. And we also want kids to see as well and so instead of maybe having big masks that might obstruct their vision; we could choose face paint or makeup instead of those larger masks over their face.
Host: Yeah, because they need to be able to see the cars as well because it’s not only the cars seeing them, it’s like sometimes they have these massive masks and they can’t see anything. So, they are stumbling around, right?
Dr. Abbe: or they are walking through yards and they trip over something in the yard.
Host: Right, right. I’m sure that happens a lot. So, looking at some of the other tips, especially around the costume, what other things should parents or children be mindful of when putting on their costume?
Dr. Abbe: Well, we want them to be – to fit their bodies well so that they don’t have floppy clown shoes and things that might be too big for them that will help them just trip right over whatever they might be walking into. So, making sure the costume fits well. Making sure they don’t have big masks. Those will be the main tips to keep them from falling.
Host: And what about older kids that are heading out without their parents? What should parents know and share with their children in order to stay safe?
Dr. Abbe: Yeah, I’m glad you asked that. I think that’s probably the most important tip. Common sense prevention tips for Halloween are the same as other times that your child might be walking in the neighborhood or walking to school. So, we know that kids should not be walking by themselves until they are around nine or ten. And this is because the part of our brain that accurately judges the speed of a car and how quickly it’s coming and that distance; that doesn’t really develop until the age of 10 or 11. And so kids, even though they might be able to see a car coming; they aren’t able to determine if they have enough time to cross the street until they are that age.
So, we want the adults to walk with the children on Halloween if they are younger than 10. But other tips that kids should know is when they are crossing the street, they shouldn’t just run across or dart out between parked cars. We want them to look both ways, but it’s left first and then right and then left again is kind of how we want them to cross the street.
Host: Yeah, definitely making sure to look twice and three times especially during Halloween. But you know one of the things that I’m curious – we’re talking about pedestrian safety for the kids, but as a driver that is potentially driving through some of these neighborhoods where kids are trick or treating and it feels like they are starting earlier and earlier. What advice might you have for drivers in order to make sure that it’s safe on both sides of the table?
Dr. Abbe: Right and I don’t know about your kids, but mine have already eaten candy before they go trick or treating and so they’re excited, you know, it’s a fun time. They are hyped up on sugar and they’re probably not being as safe as they normally would when they are walking to the bus stop or wherever, so we know that kids are already going to move in unpredictable ways on that evening. So, drivers definitely should slow down. We should turn our headlights on early so that they see us coming in that dusk period where it’s not quite dark yet. Be alert in the neighborhoods when you are driving home. In turn, exit your driveway carefully. That’s kind of a danger zone as you are backing out of your driveway, you may not see children coming in your rear view mirror or in your back up camera so make sure that you enter and exit your driveway carefully. And of course, avoid your cell phone. Don’t be a distracted driver especially in the neighborhoods.
Host: Yeah, absolutely. It’s especially important to really be on the lookout and have your full attention on the road especially on Halloween night. You made a lot of great points there. I think one of the hardest things that I see in this list is inspect candy. And it says have children avoid eating candy until you’ve had the chance to inspect it first. Wow. How do you do that and tell us a little bit about why that’s important.
Dr. Abbe: Well, what we do at the end of the night is kind of dump everything out and of course, try to make a rule around how many pieces that they are going to eat before they go to bed or per day or whatever. But just look over, make sure that the wrappers aren’t torn, and that everything looks like it came from the store.
Host: Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest problem I have with my kids is they want to eat it as they get it. I say slow down a little bit. Because of the reasons that you mentioned but there’s also allergies as well, right? Some kids may have allergies and that can be difficult to manage when kids are trick or treating and see something sweet. So, maybe talk a little bit about how parents might be a little bit safer in terms of provisioning candy for their children and making sure that they are kind of allergy free.
Dr. Abbe: Absolutely. I mean I think if your child has a major food allergy, like a peanut allergy; hopefully you can brush up on which candy is going to contain those items that might be dangerous for your child to eat. Possibly if that’s the case, that you have some extra snacks that they could eat if they happen to get the candy that they are not supposed to eat. And then of course, we always have like pencils and stickers and things to hand out, a glow in the dark bugs, that kids can choose instead of choosing candies so that we are able to give something fun to everybody.
Host: Yeah, that’s a really good tip for the people that are staying at home. It doesn’t have to be that massive bag of candy from the grocery store. There are so many things that are fun that you can hand out. So, that’s a great one. I see one here around never entering homes and I totally understand this notion of stranger danger and not entering someone else’s home but what about if it’s a haunted house? Some people will set up their homes to where they want you to go through and experience everything they’ve set up. What are your thoughts around that?
Dr. Abbe: That’s a great question. I think if you are with them and you ‘re familiar with the neighbor or the neighborhood, that you would use your best judgement to go with them into the haunted house. But I wouldn’t – I would tell them never to enter the haunted house by themselves.
Host: Yeah, that’s really good advice. I think as a parent, just making sure that – one of the things you said that’s important there is having an understanding and a comfort level with the neighborhood that your child is going to first. So, you can get a sense of the type of people that live there, the homes that they are going to be visiting so they can stay as safe as possible. That’s really good. Just to kind of wrap up here, is there anything else that we didn’t cover today that you’d like parents or children to know about staying safe during Halloween?
Dr. Abbe: I think we hit on everything. What I do because I have a six year old and so we are crossing the street constantly, right, you go from one side of the street to the other as you cross to do trick or treating and it’s a great time to practice and teach them how to cross the street safely because you are doing it so often. And it’s also a great time to model safe pedestrian behaviors. So, we kind of use it as a nice teaching time as well as the fun time.
Host: Great advice. And I really appreciate your time today Dr. Abbe. So, that’s Dr. Marisa Abbe, the Injury Prevention Manager at Children’s Health. Thanks for listening to Children’s Health Checkup. And you can head to www.childrens.com/halloween to see those tips that we were talking about today. If you found this podcast helpful, please rate and review or share the episode and please follow Children's Health on your social channels. Thanks and we’ll talk next time.