Americans will spend more than $2.5 billion on Halloween costumes ($310 million goes to costumes for dogs and a few cooperative cats), and if that’s not scary enough, this year $2 billion will be spent on Halloween candy. Clearly, you and your kids can’t join in the festivities and avoid the candy train entirely.

So what’s a conscientious parent to do?

1. Hand out our tantalizing, better-for-you treats.

2. Check out your children’s bags ‘o sugar when they drag them back home. (Rule No. 1: No eating anything until Mom and Dad have a look at the haul.) And control their consumption. We know that’s tricky — but necessary!

Tasty treats to hand out: Make up goodie bags that contain some combination of pre-packaged treats: organic gummy bears; dried fruits and pretzels dipped in dark chocolate; amazing dark-chocolate edamame; and non-food treats like animal-shaped erasers or rub-on temporary tattoos.

The art of supervising treats: First, sort through the bag and check for anything that doesn’t look right. Then have your child select five favorite treats. Take the rest and put them up on a high, high shelf out of sight and out of mind. Then make a plan: Limit the amount of favorite candy per child on Halloween night; the other favorites get parsed out over the course of a month. Explain that this will E-X-T-E-N-D the treats.

Weeks from now, when all their pals have no more candy, your kids will still be enjoying theirs.

Then there’s no trick to getting the treats.

The You Docs — Mehmet Oz, host of “The Dr. Oz Show” and Mike Roizen of Cleveland Clinic — are authors of “YOU: Losing Weight.” To submit questions, go to www.RealAge.com. A King Features syndicate.