Kids Food Allergies Blog

I hope you and your families enjoyed Halloween.  My daughter really enjoyed herself.

The school party went well.  Our clinic aide (who said she was on high alert on Halloween) looked *very* happy to see me at the class party.  The class moms did a great job throwing a fun food-free party — except a bag of Yummy Earth lollipops I brought as a game prize.

Trick-or-treating in the neighborhood was great fun.  My daughter went with a friend who lives across the way.  And whenever an orange wrapped candy (peanut butter cup) was dropped in her bucket — she immediately asked her friend if she wanted to have it.  Just so you know, she lost the gloves about 5 minutes before leaving the house.  “Too hard to gather candy with, but I love playing with them.”  So much for my brilliant idea.

She loved her treat basket.  The toys were much more meaningful to her than the food.  Could be because she has recently lost two bottom teeth.  She says it’s hard eating Swedish fish and gummy candy without without those teeth.  Who can argue with that?

I have noticed recently that when it comes to allergies, she is sounding more and more like me every day.  We were out walking last week — me with my baby stroller and her with hers, and we came across some friends.  The kids wanted to play with her stroller; she looked mortified.  I gave her the typical Mom response, “Share your toy.”  She said, I’d be happy to, but only if they wash their hands first.  She was totally right — they were eating Kit Kats in front of us.  One smart 5 year old often seems a whole lot smarter than her sleep deprived momma.

Tip 4 for Celebrating Halloween with Food Allergies:  It’s all about spin.

I recognize that the chances of my daughter getting sick from touching wrapped candy is really, really small.  Still, I feel a little squeamish about the idea of letting her skin touch unsafe foods.  She *did* manage to break out in hives after gathering wrapped candy (which she didn’t eat) from a pinata at a birthday party the summer before last — and I didn’t think that was possible either.

My sister came up with a solution that’s absolutely brilliant: gloves.  That way, if for some reason a fellow trick-or-treater munches on peanut butter cups and then touches the neighbor’s candy bowl — no worries, her skin is covered.  Easy peasy.  But, how to get my daughter to agree to this idea?

It’s all about spin.  Take allergies out of the equation and make it fun.

Me: “You know, you look really beautiful in your Belle costume.  But I think you’re missing something.  You know what Belle wears when she gets dressed up for dinner and dancing?  Long white silky gloves.  If you want to be fancy like Belle, I would be happy to get you a pair of long silky white gloves — just like the ones she wears in the movie.”

Daughter: “Really?  That would be really great.”

I took allergies right out of the picture.  And she bought right into the glove concept, as if it were her own idea.  If she hadn’t wanted to wear them, I would have let her go trick or treating anyway without them.  But in my mind - I was glad to pay $6.50 for a little peace of mind.

I’m not sure what other costumes would lend themselves to gloves.  My husband and I came up with: astronauts, firefighters, trash collectors, surgeons, boxers, and fish mongers.  Maybe even frogs.  Definitely princesses.  If you’ve got a 2-6 year old girl who is allergic to dairy and/or nuts — I hope the glove trick works for you as well.

Tip 3: Plan ahead of time how you want to handle Halloween.  I know this sounds obvious.  But sometimes things just creep up on us, and we don’t have time to give thought how we want things to pan-out.   By planning in advance, you can make conscious decisions that will steer a course for a safe and happy Halloween for your food allergic child.  Do you want to take your child trick-or-treating, or begin an alternate tradition instead?  Do you want to get in the spirit through decorations or crafts in addition to (or instead of) food?  If there aren’t safe sweets available at your grocery store — what can you make or buy online?   How is Halloween celebrated at your child’s school and in your child’s classroom?

The Kids With Food Allergies site offers many useful suggestions for celebrating Halloween at school and at home.  I urge you to check out their site.

Since my daughter has never celebrated Halloween in school before — I was particularly interested in the suggestions from their members on celebrating Halloween at school.  They write:

• Make suggestions to the teacher well in advance of the party.
• Set safe standards based on your child’s IEP or 504 plan (if established).
• Provide the snacks. It may be a small price to pay to know everything is safe.
• Attend the classroom party so that you can monitor the situation and resolve safety concerns. If you don’t stay for the entire party, at least stay long enough to check all of the food.
• Remember your child’s emotional needs and be careful about drawing unnecessary attention to his food allergies.

The last one is extremely important.  It’s the beginning of the school year, at a new school.  Drawing unnecessary attention to her allergies could make her uncomfortable.  So the reminder to tread carefully (while also taking necessary precautions to ensure her safety) is duly noted.

Kids With Food Allergies also has an excellent resource, “Halloween: Celebrate with Food Allergies and Have Fun Too.”   Great title.  I couldn’t agree more.  There are crafts, tips, recipes. Check it out!

If you have any suggestions how to have a great Halloween with food allergies, please leave a comment.

Tip 2 for Celebrating Halloween with Food Allergies:  Make sure that there are 1 or 2 homes in your neighborhood where your child can safely trick-or-treat.  Last year, one neighbor had Yummy Earth lollipops on hand.  Another gave our daughter a doll that she still treasures made out of a closepin.  Since I hadn’t discussed this with these neighbors in advance, their kindness touched me.  And my daughter was thrilled beyond belief.  You may want to consider talking with a neighbor or close friend to see if you can stash a safe treat at their house for when your child rings their doorbell.  It would make your child’s night, without putting pressure on your neighbors to come up with a creative solution.

I was pleased to see that Enjoy Life and Gina Clowes have written a tip sheet to help neighbors and friends think of ways to keep Halloween safe and fun for food allergic kids.  Way to go!  The key is getting the word out.

Since many holidays revolve around food, it can be tough to get in the holiday spirit.  For most families with food allergies, Halloween is the hardest of them all.  But Halloween is the one holiday I’ve got figured out.  My daughter loves it.  My husband and I love it too.  Over the next 2 weeks, we’ll share tips that have worked for our family to make this holiday safe and enjoyable.

Here is my number one tip:

Don’t shy away from Halloween: Make your child’s Halloween as special as possible.  We let her collect candy in the neighborhood (as long as the wrapper’s not orange), and then she trades the candy she collects for a treat bucket that I have prepared just for her.  All year long, my daughter says: “I feel sorry for other kids on Halloween.  They just get candy.  I get treats that are safe for me to eat plus new toys.”

Mind you, these toys aren’t anything big.  One “real” present (last year’s was a Webkin) plus tschotske/kitch that kids eat up.  I search for these gems in the off season, pick them up cheap, and pack them away.  To give you ideas, this is what her basket this year will look like:

on the non-edible side: a present TBD, Halloween stickers, puzzles, a ring, a pencil, a straw, and a “clacker”, and

on the edible side: Pringles Minis, Enjoy Life chocolate bars, Swedish Fish, pumpkin shaped cookies and Yummy Earth Lollipops (not pictured, but we really like them).

If you have any great tips for celebrating Halloween in a food allergy friendly manner, or questions you want to pose to me or other families raising kids with food allergies, please share them here.

Stay tuned for more tips!