An Unhealthy Halloween Story - Trick or Treat

 To tell the truth, this is a story that I barely remember, since by my moms recollection I was only about three or four years old at the time.

But I thought it was something that, parents may need to keep an eye out for and pay attention to their children on Halloween, and even days before the event.

As we all know Halloween can be an exciting time for young children.  They get to dress up in their cute little costumes.  Many of them get to go trick or treating with their friend, siblings, or cousins. So that makes it more exciting.

I do remember as a very young child the days leading up to Halloween was very exciting as well, because we were all trying to figure out what we were going to dress up as. And our moms were making plans to take us as a group so there were cousins, neighborhood kids, and siblings all going together. 

Which to us was so much fun.  Dad would stay back at the house with some of the other dads playing a few hands of poker, and handing out candy. So we knew if he was playing poker, then he was going to be up awhile which meant we were going to get to stay up later.

Usually a few of the kids would end up staying the night after trick or treating and we all got a kick out of getting scared watching, Elvira Mistress of the Dark.

I guess that tells you how long this as been.

Now at this time being three or four years old I was something of a fragile kid. My mom said it was a day to day struggle to get me to eat anything. And if she wasn't paying attention to my eating and drinking, she knew I could go all day and not eat anything if I thought I could get by with it.

But she was young herself only about 19 or 20 years old during this time, and she along with the other mothers were having just as much fun helping us kids get dressed up and have fun on Halloween, as we were. I guess on this day and probably a day or two before, she hadn't noticed that I wasn't drinking very much.

And so off we went a group of about six kids ages three to six years old with mothers lagging behind off to see who could get the most candy. I don't remember what I was dressed as and when I asked my mom she said with all the commotion and with so many halloweens since then she wasn't sure.

But about thiry minutes into the trick or treating we went up to a house with just a small little porch stoop and I knocked on the door and when they opened the door, I collapsed.

My mom said she was horrified, not knowing what had happened. I hadn't been acting sick or anything and I was laughing playing and having fun with the rest of the kids.

She immediately carried me to my grandmothers house because it was the closest and called my dad to take me to the hospital. I was hospitalized for about a week, back then they kept children in the hospital allot longer than they do now.

I was diagnosed with severe dehydration. Not from being sick or diarrhea like most kids do but just from not drinking for days. Mom said she thought I was drinking but it was so little it just wasn't enough.

I wasn't aloud to eat food for the whole week and was only on an all liquid diet and IV fluids.

I do remember getting allot of Popsicles though.

While this is not the typical safety advice that you may expect, and most likely this will not happen to most kids, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Kids get excited especially around the holiday season and Halloween is no different.

Parents need to make sure they know how their kids are feeling and are they getting enough to eat and especially drink in this case. Sometimes with all the festivities and planning, things get overlooked and something as simple as making sure the kids get fed need to be done. While in this case it was nobodies fault just something that happened because no one realized what was going on.

It can all be avoided if we just slow down and keep in mind that even simple needs need to be met. And even the best parents can let things slide not realizing that it is happening.

It is wise these days to take a cell phone with you, bring flashlights, and even make sure you have drinks with you for quick sips here and there. Have reflective tape of the children's bags, and plan not to be out longer than an hour. After all who needs that much candy.

Hope you liked my story and can take away at least a little something that will make your halloween safer and more fun.