I once owned a t-shirt that said “Official Candy Taster.” I loved that t-shirt, and every October I wonder what happened to it. The other day the parents of a child with diabetes asked me for suggestions on how to deal with Halloween candy. This is a common question this time of year and there are many different ways to deal with it.
When I was young my neighbors would give me chips instead of candy. One year my mom gave me a new purse (the understanding at Halloween was that I turned my candy over to my parents and siblings. That year I got something in exchange).
When I was a teen-ager and trick-or-treating for what was probably the last time, I went low while walking all over the neighborhood and treated it with something out of my bag. Candy was just not a big part of my childhood. It wasn’t really around our house much and it wasn’t something I remember craving (that changed in young adulthood).
Here are some more ways to deal with Halloween candy (several have been used on my own kids):
- send it to the soldiers
- leave it for the “Halloween Fairy” in exchange for a toy, movie, or in my daughter’s case, bag of mini pumpkins
- buy it back from your kids (be careful with your pricing!!) then discard, take it to work, or send to soldiers
- put one piece of candy in their lunch every day until it’s gone (or until you decide to get rid of it)
- have them eat it all in one sitting, get sick and swear off candy forever
- ask your child how they’d like to deal with all the candy
Have lots of conversations with your children and adolescents around candy, healthy food choices, healthy eating, healthy living – all the time and not just at Halloween! They will learn and take these messages with them for life.