Of all of the "scary" holidays that revolve around food, most parents with a peanut allergic child would agree that Halloween is at the top of the list. No other time are there complete strangers giving kids candy, for goodness sakes!
Since Halloween is this weekend, I wanted to re-raise a discussion from this blog in August. You can read what I wrote about it here. The most interesting part, however, are the comments of others. There were 9 insightful other PA moms that contributed to that conversation. I learned a lot from them.
Our Plans This Year
Since we have never gone door to door on Halloween, we will not be doing it this year. Tyler is my oldest and we have never done this due to his multiple food allergies up until earlier this year. Honestly, I don't think it has occurred to him yet that this is a possibility. I will keep it that way as long as I can. I am betting this is my last year with that luxury.
Instead, my two little ones will dress up in their costumes (Tyler will be "Thomas the Train" and Dylan an elephant) and hand out candy to other children. We will have lots of treats at home and safe candy they can indulge in.
In the Coming Years
When Tyler starts wanting to go door to door, I may let him with lots of restrictions. After talking to other PA moms online and off, we will let him take something large like a pillowcase that keeps the candy far from his hands. When we notice something with peanuts, we will refuse it. Once home, I will offer Tyler (and possibly Dylan) the choice of a bag of safe candy or a toy of his choice (within a certain price range). This option allows the boys to participate in Halloween without actually eating (or even touching) potentially harmful candy.
I would love to hear what the plans of other PA kids are. Will your child be trick or treating or some other alternative? Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.
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6 comments:
My daughter, who will be four in November, has gone "door to door" in all the years since we discovered her peanut allergy. Although last year was the first in which she went to homes other than those of people we knew directly. When she got home we let her trade her unsafe candy for safe candy and my husband took the unsafe candy to work. This worked out fine for us. My husband raised the idea of NOT taking her trick-or-treating this year, but I think we were kind of stuck because we'd done it in the past and she already knows what it is/expects to go. I'm just glad that her school does not celebrate/recognize Halloween so we don't have to worry about candy there or what the other children are eating!
I recently discovered your blog, though I can't remember how. I also blog, but I don't blog specifically about peanut allergies. Of course it does come up from time to time.
I really appreciate hearing other parents' struggles/points of view when it comes to food allergies. I used to read the message boards but had to stop because they made me too anxious. . . now I only check in from time to time.
My PA kid is only 17 months so we won't be going door to door, but I know he's going to want to in the future. I was talking to a family friend about it because her brother who is much older has PA. She said that he would go trick or treating and separate out the safe candy that he knew he could have and give the rest to friends. I liked the idea of him deciding where his candy went and being the one to give. Then I could replace it with safe candy.
We have always stayed home and given out candy-their Nana (my Mom) comes over and brings McDonalds happy meals and we have a good time, so my kids have never missed it. This year with her new job she won't be able to come over so I'm not sure how well it's going to go with us staying home. :-( K
Hello
Thanks for leaving your comment on my blog about peanut allergies.
Halloween can be scary as far as food goes, and being that my son is 6, he does want to trick-or-treat with his other 2 siblings.
Basically, he isn't allowed to touch his candy until we have inspected every piece and removed all of the potentially dangerous candy. He knows how serious his allergy is.
A couple of years ago I even heard him telling the folks handing out candy that he couldn't have anything with peanuts in it. :) While it was cute when we first heard it, we told him that he doesn't have to do that b/c we will still go through his candy. And usually other people just don't have a clue what he means. We just told him to say thank you and move on.
I used to let my other child have stuff with peanuts/peanut butter in it, but I don't usually even do that anymore. So, all kids will probably be handing over the peanut candy.
I also try to have "safe candy" on hand to trade for his peanut candy that he can't eat.
My son's now 5 and we plan to trick or treat as we did last year. He knows he can't have the candy we receives, but he has his own supply of safe candy waiting at home. He enjoys and looks forward to the reactions of the grown-ups answering the doors when we go trick-or-treating. We'll wash hands when we finish trick-or-treating, and the bags of candy will be handed over to me for disposal (Daddy takes it all to work). Then, we'll enjoy some tootsie rolls, junior mints, dots and Vermont Nut Free Chocolate!
My dd will be 2 in Jan so we will be staying home and passing out candy. My 6 yr old is still going to go out, but he knows that he must "trade" his candy for our candy and some surprise goodies. I picked up some inexpensive halloween pens, a toothbrush -- little things like that. I'm hoping that he will want to stop trick or treating and stay home w/her in the next few years.
I am also going to put up a sign that says "Nut free candy" or something ... on our door.
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