Countdown to Halloween

Halloween will soon be here,  and I have yet to buy candy to hand out to the kids.
I'm not a dentist or hygienist, but I am concerned about poor dental of our
children.  I love sweets of almost any kind except hard candies, but in a pinch
I'll eat a few if I'm desperate. The last few days I've been on a cookie binge and
I really need to stop.  I will when the cookies are all gone.   I do brush my teeth
several times during the day when I'm home.  I should have done it when I was
working, but I never had enough time with a half hour lunch and a long wait in    the cafeteria line.

But back to Halloween and my dental concerns.  I'd like to find something that
the kids would like but wouldn't damage their teeth.  Once I gave note pads, but
that didn't work out well for the toddlers, and another time I gave pens which I
found on my lawn the next day.  Fruit is good, but sometimes parents are reluctant
to let the kids have it because of incidents  of people using the fruit to harm
the kids (using needles or poison in them).  Small toys might be OK for the very
young, but for the teens and  "inbetweens" that might be expensive and hard to
figure out what would be good.  So it's back to M&M's or Hershey squares.

I don't like Halloween, but I love to see the kids in costumes esp. the toddlers and the ones that aren't so shy.  Maybe someday I'll think of a solution to my dilemma.
I'd welcome some suggestions.  In the mean time I wish everyone a happy and
safe Halloween.  Kiss your kids.