Do You Inspect Your Kids Halloween Candy?

Personally, I think it's O. of those horror stories where a few kids in history has found some odd things in their treats. Seems like there's like O. sick story every year--somewhere.
So, yes, I give it a once over. I don't take it for x-rays or anything....
Personally, I've never known anyone or anyone whose child has had this happen.

yes...the unwrapped and broken things.....gone...we dont eat meat so i take all the gelatin(cow bones) candies away, then my youngest has caps on a few teeth so i take away anything that will form a seal (taffy, airheads and tootsie rolls)

I throw out those weird black and orange wrapped things because i think they were made in the 70s and just redistributed. I never see them on sale, and they suck anyway.

If by inspect you mean eat random pieces that I feel I need then sure I inspect them. If you mean look for something bad, no, I know all my neighbors.

You mean while I'm eating it? Yes: )

I do look things over and my mom always did when we were kids. I also don't let the kids eat candy until we are home. My mom's rules were nothing unwrapped or home made (unless it was from people we knew well). We ended up tossing some home made stuff and the occasional candy with a ripped, unsealed or suspicious wrapper but that was it. We always heard stories about bad stuff in candy but I think it was mostly urban legends (it never happened to us or anyone we knew). The only real tampering case I recall from the 70's and 80's was the Tylenol capsules (I still buy tablets not capsules).

Yes...mainly by helping ourselves to it after DD goes to bed, but yes, we do check it over just to be safe. But I don't know of anyone that actually found anything tampered with.

Nom nom nom nom nom...we're still alive!

I don't think there's anything to those stories; I heard the scary razor stuff was urban legend. That said, I tell my kids it's easier to trick or treat when you don't have something sticky in your mouth that keeps you from politely saying "Trick or treat!". (My 1 year old, last night, was saying "T-Teet!"). When we get home, we dump it on the table to see what all we got, and I do a quick inspection to make sure everything is properly wrapped and hasn't (innocently) come open. I throw away anything that's open or too loose, or jaw breakers and stuff since my children are too small / young for some things.

I only have 2 trick or treating now, but at one point or another my husband and I were inspecting 6 bags of candy! With all the weirdo's out their today, I always inspect candy!

I inspected my daughters and when my grandchildren end up her their mother and I inspect theirs. The likelihood of finding something now is very small but why take a chance.

In addition to looking for contaminants we also look for items with peanuts. My granddaughter has a peanut allergy. And we put up most of the candy so that they don't eat too much in one night. It seems like there are some candies we throw away but I don't remember why. Ask me tomorrow after I sort thru their bags. lol

We discourage eating as they go house to house but sometimes a treat is just too delicious to wait. In that case, I look at it under a street light to be sure the package hasn't been tampered with. Ok, that's one thing we throw away. Candy with torn and trampled packaging.

We inspect for packages that have come open.

But, if it makes anyone feel any better, check out snopes.com on this.

Pins and needles in halloween candy has almost always been traced back to kids playing pranks on each other. There was a single case of a man doing it to trick-or-treaters, but my understanding is that pins in candy are rather obvious, and no one was hurt, other than one child being pricked.

And there has never been a case of random poisoning of halloween candy for trick-or-treaters. The case in Houston in the 70's was a man purposely poisoning his own children. There have been coincidental deaths that the media likes to jump on, but they were all either traced to disease, overdoses of drugs in the parents' home (followed by the parents trying to hide behind the urban legend), and heart failure. (None of this makes the front page, of course, after the initial sensational story - Child Dies After Eating Halloween Candy! - is published.)

Although quite a few folks in my circle don't do candy anymore, anyway. We pass out the kinds of little things you find in the party-favors aisle. (Pirate gold was very popular this evening! - So were the little dinosaurs.) I have one girlfriend who does temporary tattoos, and another who passed out those little lunchbox-sized, pre-bagged packages of baby carrots. My parents did little pre-packed bags of pretzels. Our neighbors do dimes.

I at least give it a look and take out anything apple related (allergy) or gum, and make sure nothing that isn't prepackaged gets eaten. I also check to see that the packaging, whatever it is, is the way it should be and no holes or tears.

My daughter has gone for the last couple years, and we always inspect her haul. My parents did the same for us when we were growing up - for the same reasons you mentioned. We never let her eat anything homemade or not store wrapped. It's just safe that way, and while it's sad to throw away the little old lady's popcorn ball from down the street, you just never know (unless you really do know the people handing it out). Hope your kiddos had fun tonight!

Yes I always inspect it.

I sort hers, because she's 4 and there is candy I don't want her to eat yet (jawbreakers, gum, etc) and also, I like to pick some out to take to work. When she gets older, I have a feeling I won't be able to get away with that.

Not really. My kids know not to eat anything that is open or not properly sealed and if I were to inspect every piece I am not sure how I would know if a needle were in a piece of candy?

We have a rule, no eating trick or treat candy till we get home.. We always ate before we went out.

Then at home I would have our daughter sort the candy into the kind she liked and the kind she didn't.. I would check each piece.. The ones she did not like she said dad could take them to his work and share with his friends there.

Yes... ALL wrapped candies are thrown OUT (smarties, tootsie rolls...). If you are able to re-wrap something the way it was bought it is a big NO. I check ALL pakaged candy to see if it still has an air-tight seal. If it doesn't, its OUT.

I have four kids... it can be exhausting, but I did it last year and the year before... Just trying to be safe, and BOY would I regret it if I didn't check it and THAT was the year something happened.

Now, I like my neighbors and trust them. They are all nice and friendly I suspect NOTHING, but I don't wanna take chances either (For instance, maybe someone did something BEFORE it got into their hands...)

I ended up getting rid of 30% or more.

Don't give out wrapped candies! :)

Never inspected it - just told her not to eat anything that the wrapper wasn't inact on.

Years ago I would take out all candy made with rice, Crunch bars etc.
Als,o I got rid of gum and gumballs.
Now I don't inspect it. I knew all the neighbors in NC and the last two years, here in VA, we have done it in the church's parking lot.

My parents never checked through ours and as far as I know, my husbands parents didn't do that either. We, however, DO! EVERY year! The kids don't like to wait while we do it once we get home, but I figure, better safe, than sorry. We just look to make sure there aren't any opened packages, unwrapped things, etc. We also don't let them eat or take any home-made goodies. In 11 years, we have never found anything bad.

My son is only 11 months and will not be eating any of the 10 pieces of candy he got trick or treating, but I still looked at the candy. Not necessarily for razor blades and needles, but more for candy that has been opened up already (and possibly tampered with). When I was little, my parents checked, but by the time I was in the 4th grade we used to all dump our candy and inspect each others. I have never found anything "bad", but have found candy that might have been opened.