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Until recently, I thought about the usual holiday protection issues of something in the candy, walking the kids in groups to protect them from strangers and maybe the stray bunch of neighborhood big kids wanting to steal all of the treats from the kids. There is one thing that I wouldn't have ever thought about if I hadn't seen it myself on our local channel 4 news broadcast.

What about your child's own costume?

Imagine your little one walking down the steps of someone's porch, only for them to be engulfed in flames due to a glowing jack-o-lantern catching their cape or skirt on fire and due to it taking less than a minute for 95% of the synthetic materials to burn, you have even less time to put the child out.

As a father myself, it is a horrific thought and that is the main reason that this article isn't as cheery as it would normally be. In research of this topic, it has been discovered that ' fire resistant ' means that it is only meant to hold up to light heat from a flame. This doesn't protect a child that passes closer than a foot to the heated area. That in it self means that your child could walk down a porch, just as I explained in the example and catch him/herself on fire unknowingly.

In testing the few that claim to be ' fire retardant ' or ' fire proof ', there were no heat exposure flame ups but, on direct flame testing, all failed and ended up proving that they were in fact able to stop burning only if the direct flame was removed so that the material wouldn't continue to burn on its own unless your child's skin was still inflamed.

Now, the good news is that you can prevent this from happening and continue to let your little ones still dawn the form of their favorite super heroes and monsters. The answer is in following the simple home recipe for fire proofing your child's costume.

Directions:

Take 4 oz. Of Boric Acid and 9 oz. of Borax (both can be found in most pharmacies).

Mix the two chemicals with 1 gallon of warm water

Soak the costume in the compound and let it drip dry.

With that said, I wish you all a safe and happy Halloween. For those of you still shopping for your costumes and candies, be sure and check out our great 60% off selection at http://www.accessgnome.com/.