Halloween is a time of year for kids to indulge their sweet tooth. That can mean heaps of sugar-covered and chocolate-dipped treats of every variety—a scary prospect for parents concerned with their kids maintaining healthy eating habits. Luckily, there are some simple ways to make sure kids avoid a frightful sugar overload and still have a scream:

Don’t skip dinner. Feeding your children a nutritious meal or snack prior to parties or trick-or-treating will help discourage them from filling up on too many sugary sweets.

Help kids practice portion control. When your children return home with treats, sort through it and set limits on an acceptable amount to eat over the next several days. In a KidsHealth survey, 82 percent of parents say they set limits using a variety of strategies to keep kids from going overboard on the Halloween treats. One tactic is to remind your kids that if they don’t eat it all now, they’ll have more treats for later.

Get a little creepy… and creative. If you’re hosting a Halloween party, have fun with fruits and veggies, and get the kids to help. Create carrot-finger food or banana ghosts, and make pizza faces with low-fat cheese, bell pepper strips, black olive slices, carrot slices, and pizza sauce. And instead of serving chips or cheese puffs, go for pumpkin seeds.