For parents with children who suffer from food allergies, Halloween can feel like a different kind of fright night.
Thrusting your child into a situation where dangerous foods that are poisonous to them are everywhere, is, as you can imagine, daunting to say the least.
I remember feeling very overwhelmed myself at the thought of taking my daughter trick or treating last year, after finding out that she is contact allergic to dairy, peanuts, and egg. You can read more about her allergies HERE.
Instead of just sitting out of this holiday tradition altogether, I have come up with a seven ideas to help make the experience less stressful.
1. Participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project.
You can read more about it HERE and HERE.
Basically the idea is to pass out non-food, non- latex items to make trick or treating safe for everyone! It’s a really great idea. Those links provide you with a list of ideas of what to pass out as well.
2. Use gloves.
My sister-in-law came up with that idea and I love it! Since my daughter can have a reaction even if she touches the offending foods, wearing gloves can protect her from accidental exposure. She is two this year and unwilling to wear gloves for two year old reasons. 😉 I am sure this tip will help her as she grows older though, especially when I won’t always be right there with her.
3. Pass out candy to your neighbors beforehand.
You can purchase a mix of candy that is safe for your child, bag individual pieces in a zip top bag, and pass them out to your neighbors beforehand with a note explaining what it’s for. Maybe describe your child’s costume in the note, so the neighbors will recognize her more easily when she come to the door.
Keeping it in a zip top bag will prevent it from getting contaminated by other candy and keep it safe until your child comes knocking.
4. Monitor carefully and have swap out candy on hand.
What we did last year is simply monitor our daughter carefully. We limited the amount of doors she knocked on, and helped her pick out pieces she could have. When there were too many offending candies at a certain house, we had a stash of safe candy in our pockets to use instead.
5. Trade candy in for a prize.
For older children who maybe trick or treat on their own and have to trade out most of their stash when they get home because it’s unsafe, it might feel very unfair to have to give up their stash. To ease the disappointment, consider offering a prize or money in exchange for the unsafe (or even safe!) candy.
6. Donate the candy.
In the same vein as number five, consider donating the candy to children who are unable, for one reason or another, to go trick or treating. Giving the candy up for a cause can lessen the disappointment and turn it into a positive experience.
7. Candy helper.
You can also involve them in passing out candy. Get an allergy friendly mix of candies that you and your child can snack on while you wait for trick or treaters to come to you. After our daughter hit up a few houses for candy last year, she came back to our house to be my candy helper and loved it! She had a blast being in charge of passing it out, and got plenty of a sugar high from the candy from our own bowl. 😉
Of course, this almost has to go without saying to a fellow allergy parent, but don’t forget your epi-pen, antihistamines and other medicines. It’s also helpful to bring a stash of wet wipes to wash off offending foods from hands as well!
Let Halloween be scary for the right reasons this year.
I hope these tips help you and your children stay safe this Halloween season!
Can I ask how you first suspected your daughter had a food allergy, I’m concerned my daughter has one, we’ve consulted our Doctor who was very blasé and just told us it’s something she may grow out of, but we are weaning and the problems seem to be getting worse not better! It’s horrible seeing her in such discomfort and anyone we have seen regarding this is reluctant to offer any solution,
Hazel,
Sure. Our daughter’s eczema was worsening and she wasn’t keeping down her soy formula. She was losing weight and became failure to thrive. I was being sent to nutritionists, to gastrointestinal specialists, but I suspected allergies . Finally, two weeks before her 1st birthday I decided to just try whole milk. The first and second times she had it, the results were the same as with her soy formula. She was still spitting it up but otherwise okay. The third time she had it though…she had hives head to toe, she vomited violently, and started wheezing. Before most of the doctors weren’t taking my concerns that seriously either. They thought I wasn’t feeding her enough or correctly. They thought that maybe she had an intestinal problem that might need surgery. Our peditrician was great and got me referred to an allergy specialist, but the wait was 3 months out since we were going off my hunch. After a trip to the instacare for her reaction to milk, we were bumped up for an appointment the very next week. I am not sure why but doctors tend to be reluctant to diagnose allergies without a serious reaction to validate your concerns. I feel for you. I hope you don’t have to find out a solution the same way we did or worse. Our allergist said that they only really like to diagnose a true allergy if at least 2 out of 3 tests confirm the presence of an allergy. Food challenge, skin test, or blood test. Until then, they will likely treat it as if it’s not real or as if she just might have a sensitivity to that food…and it’s hard to get anywhere with that. Have you gotten a second or third opinion? We were lucky our pediatrician listened to us, but I know that is not always the case. When we moved to a new area, I was shocked to find a doctor who seriously questioned whether I really couldn’t give her whole fat cow’s milk. I had to shop around for a doctor who was knowledgeable about allergies. I hope that at all helps shed light on your own situation. I wish you the best. I so hope you can get the help you need to help your little one feel better!
Like all mom’s who have a kid with food allergies it is hard and frustrating. I would recommend trying to figure out what they are allergic to and take them off for a few weeks and see if they do better then tell your doctor.
I love these tips! My 4yo son isn’t contact allergic, but has crazy sensitivities (which your original post helped me realize ages ago!). He’s not really able to eat any commercial candy. My sister found some ideas in a magazine to do candy experiments that don’t involve eating; also building things with it as a family contest or saving it for gingerbread houses. Luckily he’s so used to not getting to eat candy that he’s really excited for these things! Thanks for the tips! 🙂
I love that idea Ashley! We save our candy for gingerbread houses too, but I didn’t think about experiments or games with candy. That’s brilliant! Thank you for sharing it here, in case it helps someone else too!
Those are really smart ideas! I saw the teal pumpkin idea on the news the other night, and thought that it was a great idea!
Thanks Lynette! I think the teal pumpkin is a great way to spread allergy awareness too!
Great as always! As a mum of a 18 month allergy filled boy I’m always on the look out for any tips or advise. I read you allergy posts with great interest.
Thanks Rhian!
I love that someone came up with the teal pumpkin project idea. I am interested to see how many houses know about it this year when we go out trick or treating Halloween night!
I know! I think it’s great too. We live in a small town, so I wonder how many we will see this year as well. I hope awareness grows in the future though!
oh my gosh. This is awesome. I don’t have kids, but I have lots of friends with them and now that Halloween is spreading all over the world (I’m from Spain and now people celebrate it there too), one has to be super careful. I have severe allergies that started when I moved to the Pacific Northwest and my experience was also that doctors were very reluctant to even mention the word allergies. They only took it seriously when I started having asthma attacks… Thanks for the tips. One cannot be careful enough with giving kids allergens.