Halloween can be one of the harder holidays for kids with food allergies. There are a few reasons for this. It seems like most candies have nuts, peanuts, or soy in their ingredients. This holiday is particular difficult because often times the smaller snack size portions do not have all the ingredients listed on them. And finally, many kids will start to eat their candies while trick or treating instead of waiting until they get home.
Luckily all this is surmountable. Below are 10 tips and tricks to keeping your Halloween safe.
1. Make sure your child eats before going trick or treating, thereby reducing the risks of them getting hungry.
2. Prior to Halloween, go to your neighbors and drop off goody bags for them to hand out to your child.
3. Encourage your neighbors to hand out non-food related items, such as stickers, erasers, or even fun band-aids with ghosts on them.
4. When your child is done for the evening, have a stash of safe candy at the house to trade out the non-safe ones for.
5. Encourage your child to wear a costume with gloves like Mickey or Mini Mouse.
6. If you would rather skip trick or treating all together, then plan a haunted house with a group of kids.
7. If your child is younger rather than older, then take them trick or treating at your office or spouse’s office. Once again you can give your colleagues the candies prior to them being handed out.
8. Schedule a sleep over, where the kids can watch classic Halloween movies and make Halloween inspired sweets.
9. Encourage your child to donate their non- safe candies to a local shelter or the troops.
10. Always carry your child’s meds when trick or treating!
Do not be afraid, you will be fine and more importantly so will your child. This is just another part of growing up with food allergies. I survived the Halloween fright and so did my parents…