Holidays, Parenting

Dr. Sears Offers Halloween Tips

What’s the safest, best way to carve a pumpkin? Don’t use a knife! That’s the advice we got straight from Dr. Jim Sears, pediatrician and Emmy-nominated co-star of The Doctors. In a phone call with our editor to promote their special “Halloween” episode that airs this Friday, he shared some of his tips.

1. He hates handing out candy. ‘I just can’t do it. I’m a pediatrician,” he says. “So I hand out glow stick necklaces instead.” (And no, he notes, they aren’t toxic if your little one accidentally ingests some, like our editor’s son did one year.)

2. Dr. Sears uses those $4 plastic pumpkin carving kits to carve his jack-o-lanterns. And because the tools aren’t sharp, even young children can use them—Dr. Sears’ own son uses the kit to carve his own pumpkin.

The pediatrician has a warning for grown-ups to put down the carving knives, too. “Most ER trips around Halloween are due to pumpkin carving accidents.”

 

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