Safety tips help ensure fun trick or treating adventure

Every year children anxiously count down the days until they are able to put on their costumes and head out into the neighborhood in search of candy. Although Halloween is meant to be a fun occasion for the young and the old alike, it can also be unsafe.

Costumes may impair a child’s vision and motor function. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says that studies indicate Halloween is in the top three among holidays that produce the most visits to hospital emergency rooms. Finger and hand injuries account for 17.6 percent of injuries, and children ages 10 to 14 sustain the greatest proportion of Halloween injuries. Trips and falls also account for a high number of injuries.

There are also a good deal of children who become injured before Halloween arrives, many of whom sustain lacerations when carving pumpkins.

To make Halloween a safe holiday, children and adults can heed these suggestions.

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