Halloween Costume Safety

thehigherstandard | May 10, 2010 |

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Are you concerned about Halloween costume safety? If so, join the club. After all, you would be hard pressed to find one parent who would not proclaim from the topic of the earth that while Halloween fun is the desired, Halloween safety is required. Nothing less will be tolerated nor condoned. With that said, however, it is startling how little attention is paid to the safety of children's Halloween costumes. Oftentimes, safety unintentionally takes a back seat to style, and when bad things occur, as they sometime do, a joyous Halloween celebration can turn sour quickly. Accordingly, it is important that Halloween outfit safety remain a number one priority. The following suggestions will help.

First, you must honestly appraise whether your child's Halloween costume is safe to go trick-or-treating in. Every year, Halloween costumes are recalled by their manufacturers after some little boy or girl is injured by the product. Parents during the whole Little Mermaid craze may recall in horror when Disney was required to recall over 54,000 Princess Ariel costumes when they were not manufactured with the requisite flame-retardant materials (which is required by federal law) and a little girl received substantial burn injuries. With that said, do not buy bootleg Halloween costumes. Because they are illegal in the first place, most bootleggers are out to get a quick buck and will not, under any circumstances, take the time or spend the money to manufacture the costumes with your child's safety in mind.

Second, if your child's Halloween costume features a Halloween mask, you must examine its ventilation system to insure that it is adequate. Unfortunately, research has shown that older masks do not have adequate ventilation, resulting in breathing problems, overheating and, in some cases, carbon dioxide poisoning. For example, if you grew up in the 70s and 80s like I did, you, no doubt, worn those plastic Don Post or Ben Cooper masks -- think Yoda, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, and the like -- with the nose and eyes holes, all of which was held together with a thin elastic strap. Yikes! Those things were awesome at the time but were an accident waiting to happen. If your child is going to wear a similar mask, make sure that they take the mask on and off at each house so that they receive enough oxygen to prevent a serious problem!

Third, no discussion of Halloween costume safety would be complete without discussing visibility. While it is true that your kid needs to be able to see out of his or her costume in order to be safe (i.e., if he or she cannot see their destination, they may trip, fall, etc.), that is not the type of visibility I was referring to. Instead, I am discussing how well other people (and people in cars) can see your child. Costumes that are made of dark, non-reflective material is all but impossible to see once it gets dark. It is important that this factor be considered when selecting a child's Halloween costume.

Luckily, there are steps that can be taken to reduce the hazards associated with Halloween outfits. Prior to buying children's Halloween costumes, it is imperative that you thoroughly examine whether the costume is safe for your kid. A few suggestions might be helpful:

• Federal law mandates that all toddler, children and teens Halloween costumes be constructed of flame-retardant materials. While steps are being made to insure compliance with these federal rules and regulations, these policing efforts are not full-proof and, as a result, steps can be taken to help avoid fire related accidents. First, make sure your child's outfit is properly sized. It should not be so loose that it hangs and drapes which can, in turn, inadvertently get snagged or brush up against a fire. [Yes, some Halloween party-goers insist on lighting fires to celebrate so fire safety is a must!] If your child's costume includes a cape, try to keep the length to a minimum or, better yet, remove it from the costume altogether.

• Make sure that any Halloween masks worn by your children are well-ventilated. Ideally, these masks should be constructed like a hockey masks with big holes everywhere. If you cannot find a mask that fits this requirement, try using face paint as an alternative.

• Similarly, you must insure that your child can see through the mask's eyes. Generally speaking, the mask eye holes should be twice as large as your child's eyes. If they are not, the mask is insufficient. As an added precaution, confirm that the Halloween mask lies flat on your child's face. If it does not, do not let it be used.

After you have successfully picked out a kid Halloween costume meeting the above-stated requirements, you are still not done. Because it is uncommon that you will go begging for candy while the sun is still out, you will need to prepare the costume for night use.

• Choose like colored outfits as this is a leading cause of decreased visibility. As an alternative, plaster your child's costume with reflective tape which shine in the dark when light hits it, thereby alerting vehicle drivers to your kids' presence. Generally available at most stores, reflective tape should be placed on their shoes as well as the front and back of the costumes.

• Additionally, make your child carry a flashlight. While generally not convenient to carry along with their candy bags, I have found that a flashlight strap allows them to let go of the flashlight while holding out their candy bags. Of course, because your child should only trick-or-treat at houses where the porch light is on, the flashlight will not be needed at that particular moment. With all of these Halloween costume safety ideas said, it is inevitable that your children will not cooperate with all of your safety ideas. For example, if your child's heart is stuck on being Darth Vader, asking him or her to go around the neighborhood without the mask is very unrealistic. Likewise, if your child is dressed as a ninja, wearing reflective tape is probably not what they had in mind.

So what steps can you take to get your children to adopt your safety ideas? The following are a few suggestions that might help.

• If a full-face mask is the issue, allow your child to routinely wear it around the house. Usually once the "newness" factor wears off, the once-cool mask simply becomes a very hot and bulky annoyance.

• Similarly, if your child insists on wearing long clothing, let them wear it around the house. Usually they will get tired of tripping all over it and will pick something more convenient and comfortable to wear at Halloween.

• Third, if your child absolutely does not want to wear reflective tape, put it on their candy bag and accessories instead. My son wanted to be a ninja one year and did not want to be "visible." Although I was right there holding his hand the whole time, I compromised by putting the reflect tape on the blade of his ninja sword. He thought that was pretty cool since it looked like a shining blade (instead of dull black plastic) when a car light hit the tape. He was happy and I was happy!

• Finally, if all of the foregoing does not work, sit your child down and explain the important of Halloween safety. Use illustrations for your younger children to effectively show them the reasons you are concerned. Let them know in no uncertain terms that these safety steps are not an option. Failure to abide by these rules means that there will be no trick-or-treating this year.

As you can see, Halloween costume safety is vital to keeping your children safe during Halloween.