{"id":47514,"date":"2017-10-27T15:40:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T19:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=47514"},"modified":"2018-11-05T12:57:35","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T17:57:35","slug":"brock-profs-offer-tips-on-handling-halloweens-scary-health-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/10\/brock-profs-offer-tips-on-handling-halloweens-scary-health-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock profs offer tips on handling Halloween\u2019s scary health effects"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to children\u2019s health around Halloween, education and a bit of planning can go a long way, says a Brock University expert.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kimberley Zonneveld, Assistant Professor in the Centre for Applied Disability Studies, recommends parents talk to their kids well in advance of Halloween Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t wait until the day of. Parents should be talking to their kids about what\u2019s going to happen and what the expectations are,\u201d says Zonneveld, whose research focuses on the food choices of young children.<\/span><\/p>\n

She suggests giving kids advance warning that Halloween won\u2019t be a \u201cfree-for-all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet them know that they can have some candy each day, but I also recommend increasing the intake of healthy foods. Talk to kids about what food is \u2014 that it\u2019s fuel and that sugary foods aren\u2019t good fuel,\u201d she says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the candy cache that might result from a successful night of trick-or-treating, Zonneveld says parents should be in control.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKids don\u2019t know enough about the negative health effects of too much sugar to make healthy food choices, so I personally think it\u2019s important for parents to be in control,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrea Josse, Assistant Professor in Brock\u2019s Department of Kinesiology agrees, saying that parents need to \u201cpull back the reins and be in charge of giving the candy over.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all about the mindset of everything in moderation. I don\u2019t like to withhold candy from the kids, because they find it such an exciting time,\u201d she says. \u201cI think within moderation, they can still enjoy the fruits of their labour of walking around to get the Halloween candy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Josse says she sees nothing wrong with discreetly shrinking the pile. This includes parents going through the candy stash to remove what may be unsafe, such as hard candies without sticks for young children.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think parents should dispose of some of it. Where I live, there are a lot of pediatric dentists nearby and some of them will switch the candy out for a toy. Parents can do this too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHalloween to me is not just about eating all the candy you can. There are certainly teachable moments around it,\u201d Josse says.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to children\u2019s health around Halloween, education and a bit of planning can go a long way, says a Brock University expert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,7,3319,4052,1,4,38],"tags":[3290,244,996,5121],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47516,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47514\/revisions\/47516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}