How Your Children Can Have Halloween Candy And You Control It, Too!

It’s that time of the year, again, Halloween.  It’s up there with Christmas as a favorite holiday for our children.  It’s also a time of concern for parents.  We are concerned for their safety when they go out trick-or-treating, we’re concerned about the safety of the treats our children receive, we're concerned about their dental health, and we are concerned that even if everything looks properly wrapped, now what on earth do we do with all this candy?!

There are some strategies that you can use to ensure that your children don’t overdo it with candy this Halloween.  For younger children the strategy of limiting the size of the container that holds their stash is easy for you to pull off.  Purchase a moderate size bag or plastic pumpkin with a handle and tell the children that when the bag/pumpkin is all filled up, trick-or-treat time is over.  This strategy just addresses limiting the amount of candy that comes into the house.

Another strategy for getting candy that limits what’s received is to have a Halloween party, instead of going out trick-or-treating.  The children are certainly safer this way, and having a goody bag with some candy is a treat, but not as overwhelming as a trick-or-treating booty.

Trick-or-treating at a mall can also limit the amount of candy that makes it back home.  It’s amazing how quickly retail stores run out of Halloween candy for the children.

If your children have accumulated a lot of candy there are strategies to deal with this situation.  We register Tavormina Dentistry with the Halloween Candy Buyback.  We buy back the children’s candy and reward them with a hygiene kit goody bag filled with a fun toy, too.  You can visit www.HalloweenCandyBuyback.com to find a participating dental office near you.  Different offices offer different buyback rewards to the children.  The candy is then sent to our troops overseas.  It’s a great way to help the dental health of our children while brightening the day and bringing a little bit of home to our American heroes.  We are buying back candy November 4^th – November 6^th from Noon – 4PM at Tavormina Dentistry 96 Millburn Avenue, Suite 100, Millburn, NJ 07041.

You can also check with your local police station and see if they are participating in a candy buyback program of any kind.

What do you do if you have a lot of candy left in the house?  Have the children choose thirty pieces of candy and tell them to donate anything over thirty.  They can have one piece of candy every day for a month.  The best time to have it is after dinner so that there is only one acid attack from the eating of sugar, instead of dinner and another time later to have candy.  Every time we eat something with sugar in it, there is an acid attack produced by the bacteria that eat the sugar and this attack lasts 20 minutes after eating the sugar.

Well, we’ve given you a lot to chew on to prepare for Halloween.  Have a safe and fun time!

For information about other dental topics please visit us at DrTav.com or call us at 973-761-5090.