One of the most exciting days of the year is coming up for children all over North America…Halloween. A magical night where girls and boys turn into mythical creatures, possess superpowers and live out their dreams. Along with dressing up, visiting neighbors and logging miles on dark, pumpkin lit streets, is the crazy amount of sugar your child is going to be coming home with. But…there are ways to make Halloween healthier…just keep reading.
My girls have been counting down the days till Halloween since October 1st. Really, we have a calendar on the fridge where each day gets crossed off. I can’t help but smile while I remember how excited I use to get for Halloween. It still is one of our family’s favorite festivities.
But…as a health conscious family (and two health practitioners as parents), we find ourselves pulled in two directions about how to handle the crazy influx of sugar that our children will be receiving. As our children have grown, we’ve come up with strategies that help to make Halloween healthier.
Maybe you are thinking ahead about limiting, or getting rid of all, the excess Halloween candy. Our article 7 Ways to Reduce Your Family’s Sugar Intake gives reasons why you should be concerned about your family’s sugar intake and offers tips and strategies to help you to reduce it.
Halloween Healthier??
Since it only happens once a year, we’ve decided to focus on the positive instead of the negative. Yes, we have some strategies to make Halloween healthier but our kids will be partaking in a high dose of sugar for one night.
Thankfully my husband and I are both on the same page with this. It makes things much easier, as described in The Most Effective Ingredient for Healthy Family
We’ve been steadily increasing our strategies each year to make Halloween healthier, a little more bearable for us and still exciting for the girls.
With Halloween falling on a school day this week, I will be putting in extra effort to make sure that we are all set up for a successful Halloween night.
Here are 7 ways to make Halloween Healthier:
-
Make sure they eat a quality meal before they head out trick-or-treating.
If you are a meal planner, then this step should be very easy. To make things even easier and less frantic on October 31, try preparing a meal using a slow cooker, like our favorite chili recipe. Then it’s ready and waiting for you.
Due to multiple food allergies in our house, we have a rule that candy is only eaten when we are home. This allows us to go through it all, selecting the safe ones. Making sure we are fed and fuelled for the night makes for a much more successful experience.
2. Make sure to bring water for your trick-or-treaters to drink along the way.
Hydration is an important part of feeling good and having energy. Making sure that you have a good supply of water will help ward off whining and complaining that might occur along the route. It will also help to flush out all the sugar that they will be ingesting. There are more tips like this in our article 5 Tips To Reduce Your Kids Halloween Sugar Hangover. We are thinking of attaching their Hydrapak hydration kits to their backs this year!
3. Walk everywhere.
Instead of driving your kids from house to house, walk instead. This gets everyone outside in the fresh air, moving and getting some exercise. This will feel great and also help to lower blood sugar spikes due to sugar intake.
If you live in a place where the weather can be cold, windy, rainy or snowy, then you should be prepared to be outside for a few hours. If your kids are anything like mine, they will resist putting a jacket, hat or anything else over their costume. At least for the first 30 minutes. We’ve been trick-or-treating in the rain, hail, snow and during wind storms so we’ve learned to be prepared. We’ll carry a backpack with lightweight jackets, hats, and mittens “just in case” anyone suddenly gets cold.
4. Get down with the Teal Pumpkin Project
If someone in your house has a food allergy, then you probably know about the Teal Pumpkin Project. When you see a pumpkin that has been painted teal (the colour for food allergy awareness), then they are aware of food allergies and will probably be handing out non-food items. This is to ensure that everyone has a safe and inclusive Halloween. Consider adding non-food items to your Halloween bowl to accommodate kids with food allergies.
If you are looking for some generally safe food items to give out, have a look at this list put together by Allergic Living. Most of the items listed are free of the top 8 allergens.
5. Limit the candy supply
Some families put a limit on how many pieces of candy their child can have. The child might select what candy they want to keep and then get rid of the rest. This can be done by giving it back out to trick-or-treaters, or preparing little baggies and dropping it off at food bank or shelter. This option allows their child participate in the fun but shuts down the ramifications of a sugar-laden diet for the next month.
6. Don’t Limit the candy supply
Some families allow their children to set their own limits. This may be listening to their bodies or simply gorging themselves until they are sick. Some kids don’t love candy. They are able to eat some and then get rid of the rest. On the flip side, your child may just eat themselves sick with candy the first night and then be done with it. We’ve tried this method and had great success with it. Our daughter was rolling on the floor groaning and blaming us for letting her eat so much candy!
7. Swap it out
This is something that we’ve been doing at our house for years. It really came about due to our daughter’s food allergies. It gave us a way to figure out how to balance out the huge amounts of unsafe candy with feelings of deprivation. It’s become a tradition that they now look forward to. Before they go to bed on Halloween, they leave their candy (after having a chance to eat what they want) out on the table. During the night, some magical powers turns the candy into a small lego kit.
This works as a win-win situation in our household and Halloween is still one of the most exciting nights of the year.
You’ll have to decide what is the best way to approach this holiday for your family. We’d love to know how you handle the abundance of sugar and what tricks or tips you use to ensure a safe and healthy Halloween.
