Health Tip: Use Sidewalks When Trick-or-Treating

(HealthDay News) -- When your little ones are out trick-or-treating on Halloween, make sure they aren't so focused on their candy stash that they forget basic safety.

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers these trick-or-treating suggestions:

• Young children should always trick-or-treat with a responsible adult. Older children need a specific route to follow as well as a curfew time.
• Make sure children know to never enter a car or home, and to only go to homes with the porch lights on.
• Children should trick-or-treat in groups, and wear reflective tape on costumes and goody bags.
• Children should use sidewalks, and make sure all areas where they walk are well-lit. If there isn't a sidewalk, avoid yards and walk along the far edge of the street facing traffic.
• Provide older trick-or-treaters without an adult with a cell phone, in case they need to contact an adult.
• Children should be taught to cross the street in groups at crosswalks, never between cars.