Dear Maggie,

I’m a young mom, and I keep hearing warnings about Halloween in the news. All the anchors say we should have our children’s candy checked or even X-rayed before we let them eat it. They talk about razor blades in apples and poisons in other treats. It’s enough to give a mom a panic attack! Do you have any thoughts on all the hype?

Signed,

Panicky Parent

Dear Panicky,

Halloween is my favorite holiday and I’m always eager to clarify misconceptions about it, and this poisoned-candy bit is one of the biggest. The real truth is that there has never ever been a single case of a child being poisoned or harmed by anything that was put into his Halloween treats by neighbors. There was one big case in the news many years ago, where a child was injured by candy, but it turned out the tainted treats had come from his own abusive home. A parent gave his own child the nasty stuff. It didn’t come from anywhere else.

However, there was a period of time during the investigation when that wasn’t known. So the initial news-blast was one about neighbors attacking kids by tampering with the treats they gave out. And by the time the case was solved, trick-or-treating’s reputation was irreparably damaged. Even to this day, we keep getting these news reports warning us to check our kids’ treats, and the reporters never bother to mention that if you found something harmful, you’d be making US history, because it would be the first time.

All that said, it still doesn’t hurt to be careful. But I’d be far more concerned about making sure the little ones are chaperoned and visible to traffic, and that the older ones aren’t out in the streets armed with rolls of TP and cartons of eggs. You know, like their parents used to be. =)

Maggie