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HALLOWEEN CAN BE a busy night for A&E departments around the country. Fireworks, sparklers, bonfires, apple bobbing. Wait, apple bobbing? Yes, apple bobbing.
Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children is warning against the traditional Halloween game where children dunk their heads into a bucket of water full of apple and try to pull one out with their teeth.
According to Dr Kathyrn McCreer, eye surgeon at the hospital, injuries that can occur “as a result of the child attempting to bite the apple at force when dunking their head.”
She says that possible dangers include scratches on the surface of the eye as well as infections from dirty water and water communally used by a number of children.
The hospital says that although they “are not asking people to avoid fun on this family occasion”, apple bobbing is “best avoided”.
Eye injuries
McCreery says that she sees a variety of eye injuries happening to children at Halloween, most of which are completely avoidable:
The most common accidents I see include corneal abrasions and bleeding in the eye, caused by children being struck in the eye with sharp Halloween accessories such as swords, knives or wands and eye injuries as a result of poor supervision of fireworks and around bonfires.
“Parents need to make sure accessories such as swords and other objects are soft and flexible, and have dulled edges”, she adds.
Other eye injuries that eye doctors in A&E’s departments have to deal with on a busy Halloween night include cigarette burns to the cornea, foreign objects that get under the eye lids, bruising of the eyes and infections as a result of poor removal of children wearing make-up.
“Old make-up is a breeding ground for bacteria,” according to McCreery. Yikes!
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Better not leave the house today in case you trip on the step. Better not travel by bus in case you breathe contaminated air. Better not eat anything it might poison you.
Some load of arse alright. Talk about trying to knock the craic out of everything.
It’s not as if kids are bobbing for hand grenades.
It’s not 1st April already is it?
Not forgetting to clean everything with bleach before the children come!
Don’t know why people are dissing the article. Bobbing for apples can be very dangerous. When I was 7 I did it and just 9 and half years later, I fractured my wrist playing football.
That apple will ‘ave yer eye out!!
Conkers. Lethal.
Just rang my boss, work nights, I have to cross 9 roads and climb up and down 18 kerbs yo get to work as well as get out of bed and shower much to dangerous staying home. Wait I forgot the railway/canal bridge that might collapse. Never getting out of bed again.
That was one of the best bits about Halloween. The only time you were encouraged to put your head under water without the ‘you might drown’warning. My da was dead crafty …he’d either do it first or change the water when it was his turn!!! Can’t say I blame him there was more spits than water in the bucket!
Here here well said.
We weren’t allowed bob for apples…my parents didn’t like strange men being near us…
Surely it’s not that much of a health risk, they’re not bobbing for pineapples in a toilet bowl.
Oh come on really.. this is stupid.
Apple bobbing has been a tradition for years and years… How about we all wrap our kids up in bubble wrap sure wudnt that just be a great Halloween costume!! These articles are getting more pathetic each day.
Auch wise up – journal.ie are just reporting on it and have not commented on it.
Yeah – how about that eye doctor backing up her alarmist warnings with some stats? Like how many (if any) have been treated in Irish hospitals for an apple bobbing injury? Is she basing her warnings on her own experience or on one case worldwide she read about in the Lancet? Or is this just a hypothetical case that could happen with no actual recorded cases?
Lets get this in perspective : what are the odds of a serious injury? Are they 1 in 10 (thanks for the warning, Doc) or one in 10 million (stop scaremongering us, Doc) ?
Underwater goggles and a hurling helmet for each child.
Oh, and put some cotton wool up their nostrils just in case one of the apple stems sticks into their noses.
How did we survive at all? What a load of scare mongering rubbish.They will be telling us next that kids cant run in the playground and we have an obesity problem?Same idiots all the time coming out with this garbage.Definitely silly season.
WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!! :-)
Doctor, doctor, I keep getting a black eye hav’n me tea.
Take the spoon out:)
What a load of rubbish. We need our kids to engage with old traditions as opposed to computers. Mother-coddling does not work and kids need to be engaged in real activities. Broom swirling, trick-a-treating, pass the apple (rotton), snap apple, ghost trails and stories.
At least the good doctor is focusing on the important message and not wasting everyone’s time with warnings regarding children and fireworks or bonfires.
Thoughts go out to the people of Roscommon who’ve gone out and Had to buy bottled water just so their kids could enjoy ‘bobbing for apple’s’ – danger is everywhere
Or trails of mud like substance running from the streets of roscommon
jaysus there must be some useless parents out there if they clear their kids faces with a fag stuck in their mouths (and I am assuming “their” refers to the parent and not the kids) though you never know
Also the drowning risks are obvious.
Thats why we bob for apples in a half filled cup of water.
Can never be too carefull!
You can drown in half a cup of water. We bob for pillows in a sponge pit
How in the hell are “kids these days” (god I’m old) meant to build up ANY immune system?!
I’m carving a pumpkin with the kids later
better do it quick before these “experts” pee on that parade also !!!
Hope you’re not using a knife!
Does anybody remember the bobbing for Apple’s massacre of 86. Dangerous stuff. That’s why most Irish people only have one eye. Any doctor who tries to scare people like this should be launched into space by their toes. With no space suit.
For feck sake!!! :-)
Thank god I’m a 80s kid. Kids don’t move until your 18
I’ve one who stopped moving when he reached eighteen….
My granddaughters had bonkers taken off them in school & there is a NO RUNNING POLICY in force in the school yard …. How the hell did I live to be so old ??? I mean I breath air & it’s full of pollutants …or so I’ve been told
please tell me you meant conkers!
Dunno Peter…We as kids all used to drink from an outside school yard tap in primary school.Like put your gob around the tap spout that 12 of your class mates just had theirs on with whatever sniffles,snots and sores they had .
We should be all dead by now,but arent.
You just (like me) don’t realise that you’re dead that cooker which hit your finger caused blood poisoning and because your Mammy didn’t kiss it better (you never told her) that’s it you’re a goner.
Unfortunately, Peter, there are parents who have sued schools because their little darlings fell in the playground and broke a tooth or an arm; schools are terrified of being sued, which is why they have a ban on running. It’s a shame, but not the school’s fault.
Not sure what’s wrong with conkers…
Ye cudda got plague or worse … Ye cudda became politically correct …. And where wud ye be then
Methinks Dr Kathyrn McCreer needs to go away and do some work, she obviously has far too much time on her hands to come with this pile of nannying nonsense, what next stop the kids trick and treating in case the fall on the footpath.
Must be very easy to get a job in journalism these days.
Hold on! Are you saying we shouldn’t let kids play with real swords?
I remember bobbing for apples but my parents also hung and apple on a piece of string form the ceiling which we had to try and bite. One year my sister got so worked up trying to bite the apple she ran at it and the apple spun really hard. 3 of the neighbours houses were completely destroyed by the flailing apple and another time when playing blind man’s buff 3 of our cousins lost an eye. Our family still will not talk about the great skipping tragedy of 69 and their are several of my old school friends who never got over the dead leg they got in the yard, they still limp to this day.
OMG JHO my heart goes out to you and yours are you suffering from PTSD?
FFS.
When I saw this article I thought they were going to be talking about the dangers of drowning but seriously? Eye damage?
Right lads, no more swimming in public pools or lakes because you might damage your eyes!
my dad uses to wedge coins into the apples – usually 50p and my brother used to hold my head under the water and I wasn’t allowed to come up until I had at least a quid every time- Jesus I’d be struggling to get my head out of the water, the parents would be breaking their hearts laughing while eating all the good stuff out of my Halloween party bag! …….. Guess that’s a no no now then?
Jaysus, how did I survive 30 years on this planet without killing myself or landing myself in hospital with all the apple bobbing and living I’ve done! I must be some kind of medical miracle.
Bob for cucumbers. Cucumber water is healthy and the kids will have both a nutritious and entertaining Halloween.
Bobbing for a cucumber cause them to impale their face on the sharp side of the vegtable.
Death certain!
Cucumber might come flying out of the water like a torpedo and really take an eye out!
Never liked it anyway, could never bite the apple, just ended up with loads of water up my nose and snot in the basin.
Next they will be advising us not to let Santa down the chimney at Xmas. . The Halloween police will be out in force on Thursday no playing conkers for us now boo hoo :-(
Funniest comments on here. Really really laughed! Although the good doctor might disapprove. Too much laughing can be lethal. You could accidentally choke on it!!
The comments have made my day!
Ah its all fun and games til some one loses an eye.. Lol! What nonsense!
People of Roscommon please remember to let the water cool before bobbing for apples lol
It be apple snorkeling next
Anthony, what a great idea! Written in the same vein as your comment.
I feel like these ridiculous articles are becoming more and more common on the journal! Please report some real news because this kind of article make me not want to visit this website anymore!
Lighten up MR BEERY …WE’re having d CRAIC
Are they having a laugh,we’re not allow do anything these days
We are Ash just so long as we can do it with our hands in our pockets lol
Ya so we’ll keep falling flat on our faces
@ John Staunton …. CONKERS …. Auto correct is a bitch
Who ever employs this so called doctor should serious take a look at some of his work. There’s kids wrapped up like mummies walking the streets when the paper cut epidemic hit these shores last week.
It’s more difficult for adults anyway, somehow!
Excellent responses from everyone here) what have doctors become?
Doctors were the ones who injected poison into Irelands’ kids which has left over 50 of them permanently brain damaged and how many others with mild brain damage and lowered brain capacity?- the swine flu hoax of 2009.
1 million Irish people took this poison into their bodies – and not one doctor came out to say how dangerous this poisoned fluid was and how the administration of it was based on a hoax.
Did ye not realise that the good doctors needed the money for all the bogus injections that they were to give … Just like all the IT EXPERTS needed all that money to protect your computer from the Y2K virus that was going to make every single computer in the whole wide world CRASH ….NOT
That is the definition of being too politically correct
“all” politically correct is “too” politically correct!
All these extremely dangerous activities like Halloween costumes , bobbing for apples, standing around bomb fires and watching fireworks displays can all be covered by a Playstation game keeping all concerned safely at home till next available school day.
Ian, great that’s the answer, stop a sec that means no exercise which means increase obes
Agh give up we’re kn******* whatever we do
Great idea, wait hold on, eye strain from staring at screen, flashing lights from on screen fireworks may cause seizures, repetitive strain from controls, obesity, possibility that PlayStation may overheat causing burns….back to the bubblewrap for them till Monday so.
Better introduce legislation to combat this issue. Halloween is such a scary and dangerous time of year, it should be banned.
As well as bobbing for apples my parents used to hang an apple from the ceiling which we had to try and take a bite out of. On one occasion my brother managed to grab the apple in his teeth and pulled the roof right down on top of us all, bits of the apple were sent skywards and hit an aircraft bound for New York. The family still do not speak of that incident nor of the time when we went blackberry picking and my sister pulled one blackberry and have the earth came with it rendering 600 people in Australia homeless. These articles should serve as a warning.
I thought an apple a day was meant to keep the doctor away…
Ye Trish OLeary -Dunne an apple a day does keep the doctor away … IF YE HIT HER SMACK IN D FACE WIT IT …. I remember playing snap apple blindfolded wit the uncles ..they’d smear the apple wit soap and roar laughing when ye managed to get a nite of it … This in a house where ye daren’t turn easy from your fry on a Saturday nite because most of it would be grabbed & your tea laced wit salt … Sure great fun … Remember the girlfriend getting a tap on the shoulder in our house & when she turned back her plate was empty & the 2 brothers looking like butter wouldn’t melt … LMFAO
We’d better not ask that doctor what she thinks about coins in the colcannon. Oh the excitement of finding one!
The idea of sticking dirty coins into the apples probably doesn’t go down too well either… Ah, the memories
Thanks to all this scaremongering, soon we wont have to fear death, because they won’t have lived a day in our lives.
That is appalling journalism. That doc does not have seemed to have mention ed apple dunking. What a load of nonsense. I’m deleting my app.
Maria, you need to read the article again. It specifically quotes her on the issue. Don’t blame the reporter for reporting what she said.
Sure go ahead and delete …..the doctor will have a cure for that … Probably put u on Prozac or a couple of Lillie’s …. Sure you’ll be grand .. Just don’t take yourself too serious
Don’t try beer pong then
Beer Pong a great sport … Try lookin at Gary Mulvany on utube … AWSOME
Hahahaha!!!! This is the best laugh I’ve had all day. Would someone please dunk that ‘doctor’ and stick an apple in her mouth FFS!!!! What a load of sh^^*e!!!!!! But thanks for the laugh!!!
Health and safety overload much!!?? Ever hear of swimming goggles Dr.?
Eyewash!
Wonder does that Dr. Kathryn McCreer have kids. If she doesn’t – would explain her dr stance and not her mother stance. If she does have kids, I wouldn’t like to be one of them. FFS we all bobbed for apples. Yeah there was saliva and snot belonging to other kids in the water. Did we care, not a bit, did we get drowned wet, absolutely, did we have fun, absof…….lutely. This malarkie of no bobbing for apples, no rings in the brack etc. all these no’s are going to make our children the most sour creatures on the planet. They won’t know what it is to live and to have fun and all the lovely traditions will die out. Such a sin that people are wiping out the FUN in LIVING.
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