SAN ANTONIO — Halloween is just three days away and many families are still planning to trick or treat.
We want our kids to have a bit of normalcy this year with the pandemic turning so much of their world upside down. But that normalcy needs to come with responsibility.
"There's a lot of fun things families can do this year or really every year," said Dr. Robert Sanders who is the Associate Medical Director of Pedi Express Urgent Care within the University Health System.
He says even if you are wearing scary or spooky mask, that isn't enough to protect you. Dr. Sanders said, "You want to wear a regular surgical mask or a cloth mask for instance that you would wear to school or out to the grocery store under that scary or silly mask you might be wearing for Halloween."
If you are trick-or-treating try to stay in a small group like your family or those close friends you've been semi-quarantining with, try to stay away from other groups you may encounter along the way, and if you approach a house where there is already another group or family to wait until they leave.
Dr. Sanders added, "Try to keep your group small try to avoid getting too close to other groups this year but still going out and having fun."
But what if you're handing out candy? Dr. Sanders told us, "I wouldn't be bringing people to your door. I think that's the most important thing we want to be thinking about this year."
Other ways to hand out candy could be making single serve grab bags and putting them on a table by the curb, making a spooky graveyard with candy on sticks, hanging candy from a tree by clipping it to a piece of string, or making a candy chute. Dr. Sanders added, "Real fun couple inch wide tubes, decorating them all fun sort of Halloween style, and it's at least 6 feet long, and families are putting candy in one side and dropping it right into the trick-or-treaters bag on the other side."
If you are looking for alternative activities besides trick or treating Dr. Sanders told us, "Have an evening at home doing pumpkin carving fall activities such as decorating around the house and doing may be Halloween decorations that evening. I think of Easter as a parallel here kind of hiding candy around the yard not an Easter eggs but in spooky eerie scary ways. Movie night, staying in and doing a spooky movie for the family having popcorn and hanging out together would be another great way to spend Halloween this year as well. If your family really enjoys Halloween decorations something similar to what we do at Christmas we go out and look at Christmas lights in our car, of course being safe out there and driving slowly through the neighborhoods if there are people out there walking around on the streets."
For more information about family health call 210-358-3045. You can also find the rest of Wear The Gown stories, just go to WearTheGown.com.