Everyone loves to dress up and transform themselves into something or someone else on Halloween. Unfortunately they can’t transform into someone that no longer has food sensitivities. If you and your children have food allergies and intolerances your main concern for trick or treating is no longer them tripping over their costume. You have to be vigilant on Halloween so or you could turn into the pirate that plunders their treats.
So what do you do? You can’t ignore the holiday. Do you tell your kids, sorry you’re not celebrating Halloween this year? That would be even scarier. Here’s how to keep the booty safe.
Find out from your kids what they like the best about Halloween.
- If it’s knocking on doors with their friends, then let them go and go with them. At the end of the evening take the bags of candy collected to a local shelter for the homeless or battered women and children. Your kids get the treat of giving. Their reward is a bag full of candy they can have according to their needs.
- If it’s only eating candy that excites them then have some friends over and only have the “safe” candy they can tolerate. Have a piñata or just a bowl. Have them help you make those gluten free cookies or soy free rice crispy treats. The treat will be not getting sick.
- Most importantly arm yourself with lots of information: There are many articles on great blogs about this very topic. Gluten-free candy lists, dairy free Halloween, the list goes on and on. The best source for this information I found was on the Sure Foods Living blog. They have a great post on how to navigate the candy bags. Check out the long list [1] or the quick list [2]. They also had a food allergy blog carnival [3] with many entries from different sources and new information on Gimbals Candies [4].
Please keep in mind that manufactures can change how they produce their products without changing the labels so when in doubt, call them directly.
Be proactive and Halloween won’t be so scary. If you are trying new things this Halloween because you no longer eat sugar or gluten or something else, please leave a comment and share your tips so all can benefit.