Is this your first Halloween after starting a gluten-free diet? Maybe you are newly SCD? Ugh! There’s nothing like diet restrictions to remind us how many holidays/celebrations revolve around food. Here are a couple of tips and links to help you guide your family through the most frightening of all the fall holidays.
If you go trick or treating, keep the kids from dipping into their treat bags until you get home. You can switch out some of the questionable treats for something “legal” or “less awful” when you get home. It’s a good idea for general safety anyway, and it can be used to patrol for diet infractions now.
Legal treats could range from “mainstream candy” that is GF or GFCF (click here to read The Gluten Free Halloween Candy List); or specially made allergen-free candy (check out Allergen-Free Candy at Natural Candy Store) or is organic (Organic Candy at The Natural Candy Store) Other options fall into the non-edibles… a.k.a. trinkets and trash. Try to stay away from the lead-laden trinkets that all parents despise. Among the more useful non-edibles are pencil grippers and erasers, pencil sharpeners, tattoos, cool stickers and glow sticks.
Not only could you stock these for your own at-home “swap out” your kids, you could pass them out from your own door. The parents in the hood that live with allergies will be mighty grateful, I’m betting.
Of course, if you are swapping out just for your child(ren) – you know what they LOVE and for what they would be willing to give up all their “booty.” There are even tales far and wide of the “Great Pumpkin” – who trades good children’s Halloween candy for a coveted treasure or activity. Whatever you choose, take time to think about how you will approach the evening’s activities with your child. Some kids are flexible and won’t mind the swap. My son, for years – could not care less about the contents of his Trick or Treat bag. Other kids may fixate on “forbidden” treats.
I know a brilliant, dedicated mom that would run ahead of her kids to the next house on their route. Once there, she would gift the residents with acceptable non-food treats her kids could have when they “trick or treated” there a few minutes later. More fun, less trauma when it would have come time to remove hard-earned treats from their bags!!
Happy Halloween! Now, let’s hear your ideas…
~ LuvBug
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When my daughter was younger and first started trick or treating, I happened across this website which I did not see on your referenced list…http://www.choclat.com/
I live in Oregon and this company is in Ohio but I thought it was important that she could experience Halloweeen. I ordered some chocolates and candies through the mail and when they arrived I put together little bags of unique goodies. I took them to 10 houses before Halloween and explained about her food sensitivities and asked them to set the bag aside for our arrival. At each house she got these amazing little packages and I didn’t have to worry what was in them. I did that for the first couple of years and later did what you suggested and went through the bag before allowing her to have any. But she was then old enough to understand and not get upset. And, that candy from Ohio was the best chocolate I have ever tasted. Yuuuummmm! A little extra expense and effort but it was worth it for us!