I hope everyone and their little goblins have a great time. I also wish you all great weather for trick-or-treating.
I’m sure you already know what you plan to do tonight and how to keep your child safe, but here are a few tips that I'm repeating.
- Pre-feed your children (and yourself!) to help prevent overeating of the candy. It’s easy to overeat the candy when you are hungry. Full bellies of wholesome food will help curb the urge to munch between houses and gorging once home.
- Make sure the costumes are safe and your child has a light on them somewhere such as a flashlight, reflective tape or one of those cool glowing wristbands or necklaces. Kids tend to dart across streets without looking when they are with their friends and are excited. Also, remember the masks we wore as kids? You couldn’t see very well, they were hot and you had to lift them every so often so you could breathe. If you remember how uncomfortable that was, then don’t let your kid wear one that he can’t easily breathe through or see through.
- Go with your kids, don’t let them go alone or just with friends. It not only helps keep them safe it is fun to watch, too! Ask them what they got every time they leave a house and try to keep a mental note of what they got where, just in case there’s a problem with a candy later. Keep to neighborhoods where you know the people and there is no need to hit a hundred houses. A few places usually lands you enough loot to last.
- Of course, every parent checks the candy. You’re looking for the obvious open candy, but make sure you actually pick up and closely inspect every piece, no exceptions. Hearing of hypodermic needles injecting candy is a scary thought, that is why you need to stick to going to people you know and trust. Most malls, some libraries and other places that are kid friendly often have trick-or-treating if you don’t want to hit the streets.
- Make sure your munchkins don’t munch out too much on the sweet stuff. You know how bad the tummy aches can get and how the sugar overdose affects their mood. There are many options – you could give them a few cents for each piece of candy up to half of the loot; allow only so many pieces to be eaten a day in exchange for desert; bring the extra to work with you (your co-workers will hate you for it, but they’ll get over it); save it for a month and pass it out at the next game or activity your kid attends, etc. You get the idea.
- The most important tip is to relax, have fun and take lots of pictures to embarrass them later when they’re older!
Have Fun!!
Want to know how to keep your kids healthy? Then check out these vitamins for kids you’ll both love!
