Halloween costume safety! What you should know!

Serious concerns have been raised over children’s flammable Halloween costumes.

It is important that parents are aware of the potential safety risks before buying their children’s costumes. It has been revealed that they can catch fire within seconds.

Parenting group Channel Mum conducted tests on trick-or-treat costumes from seven leading retailers.

All the outfits passed a ‘brush test’ past a candle, but when they were held above an open flame all went up within six seconds.

The issue were brought to light after TV presenter Claudia Winkleman’s daughter Matilda was severely burned after brushing past a tea light on Halloween last year.

So what can you do to help make sure Halloween isn’t as scary as it needs to be?

The first thing to understand is that Halloween costumes are classed as toys which means that, by law, they don’t have to be as fire retardant as normal children’s clothing.

It is important to ensure that children are wearing clothes under their costumes. For example, woolen tights, jumpers or jeans will offer extra protection in the event that they catch fire.

Make sure you pick a costume that is made out of just ONE single type of material. This typically means that the costume will set fire more slowly than those that are made out of lots of different materials.

Try and opt for flame-resistant materials.your child is likely to be near candles, lanterns, and other decorative flames when they go to Halloween parties or out trick-or-treating, so check the label to see if a costume is safe.

Tesco, Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, and Sainsbury’s, all responded to the investigation by stating that their fancy dress outfits for children would meet the equivalent of the higher fire safety standards required for youngsters’ nightwear.

Although no costume has a 100% safety guarantee, here are some picks from the Sainsbury’s range, as they now have higher than average fire safety regulations on their range.

CLICK HERE to buy kids spooky little pumpkin outfit from just £8.

CLICK HERE to buy kids tuxedo zombie costume 3 – 12 years from £10.

CLICK HERE to buy kids bewitching butterfly outfit from £10.

A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s says: ‘We have looked at every detail of our children’s dress-up range in creating our new standard and believe that it will be industry leading. This has not been a simple task, but the safety of children is our number one priority and introducing more rigorous safety standards for our children’s dress-up is the right thing to do.’

“All clothing carries some fire risk, but we hope that introducing our own rigorous testing standards that test clothes as clothes rather than as toys will be the first step towards safer testing across the industry.”