Happy Healthy Halloween 2022
Halloween kicks off the annual holiday season with kid’s dressing up in costumes and trick or treating at the neighbors. We want parents to support their kids having a fun, safe and healthy holiday. Check out these tips to help make the festivities fun and safe for everyone:
- Walk your Trick or Treating route. If you were thinking of only visiting your own block of neighbors, expand your route and visit another neighborhood too. The week leading up to Halloween, do some practice runs and check out all the fun and festive decorations around the neighborhood. We’re lucky to live in a place where the weather allows us to walk outside during this time of year, so let’s get out and enjoy it!
- Think Safety before you leave. Prepare your trick or treater with items such as a flashlight, reflective tape or strips on costumes and candy bags, and an emergency contact information card in case they get separated from the group.
- On Halloween Night:
- Try and eat a good meal before trick-or-treating so that candy is a dessert and not dinner.
- Trick or treat as part of a large group with a responsible adult.
- Teach your kids to walk on sidewalks whenever possible, look both ways before crossing the street at a crosswalk or intersection, and walk, not run between houses to avoid trips and falls.
- Check candy after and eat only factory-wrapped treats. If you have any doubt about the safety of a treat, throw it out.
- Encourage your kids to be mindful of the amount of candy and snacks eaten, and to stop before they feel full or sick.
- After Halloween Night:
- Consider setting limits on how much candy your child can eat. Tell your kids before you go out trick or treating what the limits or rules for candy eating are and explain the reasons for those limits.
- Participate in a Halloween candy buy-back program where children donate their Halloween candy to American soldiers overseas. Or swap your child’s sweet for a sweet prize, toy or extra minutes playing at the park.
Keep in perspective that Halloween is just one day out of the whole year and if your family does a good job trying to eat healthy and be active, a few days of candy eating isn’t going to reverse those habits.
The Get Healthy Staff wants to wish all of you a Happy and Healthy Halloween!
