With witches, monsters and super-heroes descending on neighbourhoods across Ontario, Focus Investigations would like to offer parents and guardians some safety tips to help prepare their children for a safe and enjoyable trick-or-treating experience.  Halloween is a fun holiday and by following the following practices, it makes it safer and more fun.

• The most important Halloween safety tips for parents and guardians to follow is that Children 12 and under should never go trick-or-treating alone, but instead with a group of kids and several responsible adults.
• For maximum costume safety on Halloween, it is recommended to get attires and accessories that are visible and protect against burns. If you are dressing your little ones in homemade outfits, make sure the bottoms don’t touch the ground while the child is standing and have them wear flat shoes instead of any with height to help ensure safety in costumes.
• While many character costumes come with masks, it is safer to paint your child’s face with nontoxic face paint. Masks can make it hard for a child to breathe or see, which could lead them to trip or run into things.
• Carrying a light from house to house is a good idea, but in terms of Halloween fire safety, there shouldn’t be anything with an open flame near children. This fire safety tip also applies to jack-o-lanterns, as candles are not a safe way to light up pumpkin faces since they could be kicked or knocked over and potentially start a fire.
• To make kids more visible in headlights, put reflective or glow-in-the-dark tape on the back and front of their costumes and all over their candy bags. As an extra way to make them stand out, you can also have kids wear glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces.
• Multiple professional eye care organizations as well as Health Canada advise consumers against purchasing decorative contact lenses for Halloween because it can lead to serious infections and eye disorders. If you are interested in decorative lenses, consult with your eye care professional to help ensure safe use.
• Trick-or-treater groups should always walk on sidewalks or paths, but if there are none available, they should walk as far to the left as possible to face oncoming traffic. It is safer to trick-or-treat one side of the road and then the other side rather than zig-zaging across the road.  Remind children to look both ways when crossing the street.
• Make sure children know they should accept treats at the door only and must not get into cars or enter the homes of strangers.
• Children shouldn’t eat any homemade treats from strangers and instead should stick to only those that are factory-wrapped. Parents should inspect all treats for tears in the packaging or potential choking hazards before letting children eat them.
• It is advised that older kids should practice all of these safety measures and parents should make sure they know what route the adolescents will be taking before they set out. It’s also important to set a curfew so you know when to expect them home.
• Even if you have dressed them up and they have no history of aggression, the Society for Human Society recommends keeping all pets restrained and away from trick-or-treaters. Since kids are often dressed up and may be carrying accessories the pets are not familiar with, it may cause fear or anxiety and the pet could jump on or nip at a child.

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM FOCUS INVESTIGATIONS

www.focusinvestigations.net