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    Number of U.S. Kids Injured on Halloween Is Scary

    HealthDay – Sun, Oct 9, 2011

    SUNDAY, Oct. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Children are four times more likely to be hit by a car on Halloween night than on any other night of the year, according to experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    In addition, the researchers warned that eye trauma from sharp objects and burns from flammable costumes are also common Halloween injuries.

    "Children should be out having fun and spending time with family and friends. They should not have to spend Halloween in the ER because of some injury that could have been easily prevented," Dr. Sandra Schneider, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said in an ACEP news release.

    The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 40 million kids aged 5 to 14 will be keeping up the tradition of knocking on doors on Halloween.

    When planning for the big night, the ACEP offers the following tips to adults to help them protect kids from frightful injuries:

    • Local community centers, shopping malls or schools should be encouraged to organize Halloween festivities that allow kids to "trick-or-treat" without walking outside in the dark.
    • If kids do go out at night, make sure they stick to the sidewalks and obey traffic signals.
    • Remind children to stay together in a group with at least one adult chaperone.
    • Be sure children are aware of the potential dangers from strangers, and remind them to stay in familiar areas.
    • Avoid masks that block children's vision and costumes that could cause them to trip, such as baggy pants and high heels.
    • Make sure costume fabrics and accessories are made of flame-resistant materials, such as nylon or polyester.
    • Keep kids away from candlelit Jack-O-Lanterns.
    • Inspect all candy before children eat it and dispose of anything not in a sealed wrapper.
    • Bring a flashlight while trick-or-treating to increase visibility.
    • Costume accessories, such as wands and swords, should be made from safe, flexible materials and not have any sharp edges.

    More information

    The American Academy of Pediatrics offers more Halloween safety tips.

     

    81 comments

    • Bigfoot ate DB Cooper
      Bigfoot ate DB Cooper  •  7 mths ago
      The only part of my body that sustained damage was my teeth from eating all that #$%$ candy, lol.
    • Hitman Pedro
      Hitman Pedro  •  7 mths ago
      Geez, really? Next thing you know the Government will try to ban Halloween like they do with everything else. In the town I live in police are in the road during trick or treating to slow down traffic and make sure people can cross safely. Also parents walk with their children to make sure they aren't just running wild in the street. It's a pretty simple concept. The only way a child should be hit by a car is if it ran up on the sidewalk or through someone's yard.
      • James
        James 7 mths ago
        The problem is not that children are being hit on sidewalks, but that children, being caught up in the moment and not thinking, as children often do, they run out into the street without looking, getting hit by a car.
      • Hitman Pedro
        Hitman Pedro 7 mths ago
        I didn't say that children were being hit on the sidewalks, I said the only way they could be hit is if the car ran up on the sidewalk. That is why I made the comment about police slowing down traffic and parents keeping an eye on their child while trick or treating.
      • Smile
        Smile 7 mths ago
        good grief. All this hand-wringing over Halloween. When I was a kid we could roam the neighborhood by ourselves, and we were only 8 or 9. We made our own costumes, no purchased or rented ones. And There were lots of kids in the neighborhood, so we wound up in groups. Nobody ever got hurt, sodomized, hit by cars, or fed glass. . . . There is too much freaking out by parents and writers of these articles who imagine the worst and try to infect everyone else with fear and try to create new "rules" for halloween. I am surprised they didn't add "wear your helmets and kneepads/elbow pads" to the list. . . . .
    • Nononono
      Nononono  •  7 mths ago
      In our neck of the woods, we do Halloween the old fashioned way. Small town. Houses are all lit up, most have decorations. Little kids start coming with parents right at the beginning of the evening, then they progress in age up to teenagers and we have had some college kids. There are hayrides, from regular mules and horse teams to tractors, church groups, school groups, singles, grand mas and grand pas. Good guys and bad. We buy almost $200 of candy and have very little left at the end of the evening around 10 PM. We average 200 to 250 kids. Our house and yard are decorated and we are in costumes and we have as much fun as the kids. Take the time to use a little common sense and enjoy some fun with your kids. You can come see us and we would love to see you.
    • Seabound
      Seabound  •  7 mths ago
      On Halloween night there's probably 20 times more children out walking the streets than on ANY other night. Only 4 times the injury rate of normal evenings doesn't seem the least bit high, actually it seems low, probably reflective of the number of parents accompanying them.
      • Paul
        Paul 7 mths ago
        Good catch on the statistics discrepancy Seabound !!! At LEAST 20 times more kids out, maybe 50 TIMES, so a 4x increase is actually safer per kid than a regular nite !!!
    • Carrie
      Carrie  •  7 mths ago
      •Make sure costume fabrics and accessories are made of flame-resistant materials, such as nylon or polyester. .....lol!! The writer obviously knows nothing about material. Nylon and polyester will just melt onto the child, they may not go up in flames but they will have "plastic" melted onto them. Try burning polyester it becomes a ball of hot goo. Just be careful and make sure your kids don't get too close to open flames or lit pumpkins. It's amazing how easy it is to make sure your kids don't get hurt if you just pay attention!
      • R Young
        R Young 7 mths ago
        I was just going to say the same thing!! nothing like having hot melted plastic on your skin!! The writers need to do more research before putiing them on the web!!
    • crystal
      crystal  •  7 mths ago
      OMG when i was a kid we used to fill 30 gallon trash bags with candy..we trick or treated until 10 or so, with glowsticks. We dove into our candy, sometimes right as we got it. I've noticed the streets are more and more empty. All this media perpetuated paranoia. Crap. Dress your kids up, grab some glowsticks, quit being a baby and go trick or treating. Its part of the fun
      • JDinKorea
        JDinKorea 7 mths ago
        AMEN! Well said , young Lady!
      • R Young
        R Young 7 mths ago
        I too remeber being out till 10 or 11 trick or treating.
    • Susan B
      Susan B  •  7 mths ago
      The laziness of parents who drop their kids off at the community party rather than take a couple of hours out of their busy lives to follow them door to door has killed what used to be a really fun holiday. I never bother to buy candy any more as no one goes trick or treating around here. They're all at the fairgrounds playing baby games.
      • Stephen
        Stephen 7 mths ago
        Halloween and the 4th of July are our favorite holidays, just wished they would last longer, and I wish they would have more custume parties like they used to.
    • The Great Rage
      The Great Rage  •  7 mths ago
      "Number of U.S. Kids Injured on Halloween Is Scary"

      Liberals will move to ban it.
    • desadiste
      desadiste  •  7 mths ago
      Isn't Hallowe'en SUPPOSED to be scary?
      How scary would it be without the possibility of getting run over by a car, psychos around the corner, poisoned candy and razor blades in apples?
      How about we get Homeland Security involved to protect us?
    • cyndi
      cyndi  •  7 mths ago
      Dress them up in a bubble...........
    • Bachman
      Bachman  •  7 mths ago
      Have fun on Halloween kids, but watch out for cars. And drivers be exra cautious that night with all the kids running around.
    • Bigfoot ate DB Cooper
      Bigfoot ate DB Cooper  •  7 mths ago
      Ahh, reminds me of the good old days when we tipped over portable outhouses and smashed pumpkins till midnight. Such debauchery!
    • KitKat
      KitKat  •  7 mths ago
      "If kids do go out at night, make sure they stick to the sidewalks and obey traffic signals."

      Duh. My parents wouldn't let me walk to school etc. by myself until I proved that I could do just that ... are kids getting dumber these days or do parents just not care enough to teach them otherwise? I didn't have fireproof outfits when I was growing up ... I knew better than to set myself on fire with a Jack-o-lantern.

      It's all common sense - walk in groups, stay safe ... come on. It's not brain surgery. If parents don't know this stuff, maybe they're not fit to be parents.
    • Elvis Never Lied
      Elvis Never Lied  •  7 mths ago
      some of the places I lived you couldnt even tell it was halloween no houses done up streets deserted it aint what it use to be
      maybe its better for them to have a halloween party
    • Arliss Bayless
      Arliss Bayless  •  7 mths ago
      I always look forward to handing out my famous barbed-wire-and-bubblegum balls
    • Jihad Joe
      Jihad Joe  •  7 mths ago
      When I lived in Mansfield Ohio I was shocked to find out that the beggers hours were like from 5 to 6 pm. When I talked to my daughters school about why this is, I was showed a book 10 inches thick that was full of regesterd sex offenders that live in that area! Its because of the Famous Mansfield prison. When the offender is released he has to live near by to see his parol officer and to attend classes on how not to rape children. If you like crack heads and sex offenders in a small town setting here ya go!!
    • desadiste
      desadiste  •  7 mths ago
      Baaah, too many kids anyway!
    • nicholas
      nicholas  •  7 mths ago
      The people who write these articles and concur with them or just want to implement new stickler policies are the ones that watched the other neighborhood kids trick or treating from their window.
    • Larry Curly & Moe
      Larry Curly & Moe  •  7 mths ago
      How many kids are getting hit by drunk drivers ???? Be safe on Boogie Night
    • djhowe
      djhowe  •  7 mths ago
      Let's ban Halloween while we're at it.
     Post a comment
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