Trick-or-treat safety checklist for little kids

Screenshot it or print it, and run through it on Halloween afternoon. It takes about 15 minutes.

Before you leave the house

The costume

• Light colors where you can. Safe Kids suggests choosing light colors and decorating costumes and bags with reflective tape or stickers.
• One strip of reflective tape on the front, one on the back, one on the treat bag.
• Face paint instead of a mask. Safe Kids recommends face paint and makeup instead of masks that limit sight.
• No baggy sleeves or billowing skirts. The CPSC advises avoiding both, and keeping costumes away from candles.
• If you bought the costume, look for a "Flame Resistant" label. The CPSC notes this "doesn't mean costumes won't burn", so keep your child away from open flames anyway.
• A walk test in the hallway. Can your child walk, climb a step and see straight ahead without the hat slipping down?

What to carry

• A glow stick for your child and a flashlight for you. Safe Kids suggests carrying glow sticks or flashlights.
• A small snack from home, so nobody eats from the treat bag on the walk.
• A familiar spare layer, in case the costume gets itchy or cold.
• Your phone, charged.
• An empty bag for the pieces you will swap out later.

Your own porch

• Light jack-o'-lanterns with battery lights, not candles, as the CPSC recommends.
• If you carve, a grown-up holds the tools. The CPSC says adults, not kids, should use carving tools, and it reports that 48% of Halloween emergency room visits are related to pumpkin carving.
• Clear the steps of shoes, toys and hoses before the doorbell starts.

On the walk

• A grown-up goes along. Safe Kids says adults should accompany children under 12.
• Hold hands at every curb, driveway and crossing.
• Know when it gets busy. Safe Kids lists peak hours as 5:30 to 9:30 PM. With a 3-to-6-year-old, an earlier, shorter loop inside your town's official hours is easier on everyone.
• Stay on the sidewalk and visit houses with a porch light on.
• Treats are collected at the door. Nobody goes inside a house.
• Agree on a go-home word before you start, and use it as soon as anyone is tired, cold or scared.

When you get home: the candy check

Do this at the kitchen table before anything gets eaten. For children 4 and under, Weill Cornell advises removing:

• Gum
• Hard candy
• Gooey or sticky candy
• Peanuts
• Toys with small parts

Swap the removed pieces for something that works, like a sticker, a new crayon or one treat you have already checked. With a 5- or 6-year-old, sort the bag together so they see what goes and why.

If your child has a food allergy, check every label against their own allergy plan before they eat anything. FARE says about 1 in 13 US children has a food allergy, roughly two in every classroom. Its Teal Pumpkin Project invites homes to offer non-food treats such as glow sticks and bubbles, so a teal pumpkin on a porch is a good sign. If you are unsure what is safe for your child, ask your pediatrician.

Talk about it

• "Where should the shiny tape go so cars can see you?"
• "What do we do at the curb?" (Stop and hold hands.)
• "What's our go-home word tonight?"
• "Can you help me sort the candy into 'now', 'later' and 'grown-up' piles?"

More from Storytime Crayons

Before the big night, color our free coloring pages of a trick-or-treat walk and a candy bucket together and talk through each step of this checklist as you go.