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There are lots of things we do to maximize our children's safety on Halloween. We make sure that their Halloween costumes are free of adornments that can double as choking risks, long ties that can cause strangulation, and dangling hemlines that equal tripping hazards. We have learned to look for toxic chemicals in our face paints and to make sure that masks fit properly so that they don't obstruct vision.

We weed through our kids' loot, making sure that every piece of candy is virginal-perfectly wrapped and unadulterated. We hastily remove anything homemade or even potentially homemade, anything punctured, ripped, crinkled, or crumbling.

Some parents stick reflective tape to the outside of the costumes so that cars can see them more easily. Others arm their children with glow sticks or flashlights. We hold hands crossing the street and we insist on using the crosswalk.

If you think you do everything you can to maximize your child's safety, you are wrong. Because you haven't put down your cell phone yet.

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Why I Wrote Dangerous or Safe? (Which Could Also Have Been Titled The Danger of Thinking That Everything Is Bad For You) By Cara Natterson, M.D.

During the seven years I spent in private practice as a pediatrician-checking dozens of kids each day; taking phone calls in the middle of the night; and working weekends in the hospital and office-I also became a mother. Despite my medical degree, I found myself swirling in the eddies of parental rumor just like everyone else. I was vulnerable to the same worries and certainties about every possible thing that could harm my children, just like every other parent out there.

I felt lucky because I could do something about it: I could read the studies, understand the data, and come to rational conclusions. The problem was, I didn't have enough time in the office to pass all of this information along to my patients and their families.

The list of To Do's during a checkup visit is a mile long (Do you brush his teeth? Is he wearing a helmet when he rides a bike? Is the car seat properly installed? Have you baby proofed the house? Is he walking? Is he playing sports? How many words does he have? How much TV is he watching? Is he engaging normally with others? How are his eating habits? How are his bowel movements?) It has become a parent's responsibility to remember to ask the question of the day about lead or cell phones or DEET or antibiotics or milk or organic produce or water or vaccines. And when doctors don't have time to cover it all in the office, parents take it upon themselves to seek out answers.

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Dr. Cara Natterson is our guest blogger during the week of October 13th. If you have any questions for Dr. Cara Natterson, add a comment to any of her posts.

Here is more information on Dangerous or Safe? Which Foods, Medicines, and Chemicals Really Put Your Kids at Risk -

A leading pediatrician answers a question that's on every parent's mind: What's safe for my kids?

There is no doubt that children today are living in an increasingly toxic world. Parents are more worried then ever, and conflicting reports in the media and rumors on the playground can cause even more confusion about which products are perfectly safe and which are harmful, even deadly. Dangerous or Safe? provides desperate parents with concrete answers on what foods, chemicals, and medicines pose real danger to kids.

Combining scientific data, medical expertise, and a parent's intuition, Dr. Cara Natterson-a top pediatrician and mom herself-outlines these threats by first explaining the newest scientific research and then providing a "bottom line" for parents to follow based on the facts and her medical expertise. Making complicated medical and scientific information accessible, Dr. Natterson shows parents how to maximize their children's health and safety.