Celebrating Halloween with Food Allergies

We are just a little over two weeks until one of our favorite holidays: Halloween. This is a bit of a tricky one because obviously one of the best parts of the night is going door to door showing off your costume in exchange for candy.

Candy. Great! Perfect activity for a house that has gluten and sugar intolerance and nut allergies.

So how exactly does my daughter celebrate Halloween with so many food restrictions in our house? Well, I’m so glad you asked! The thing is, Halloween is going to look different for every allergy family. Each person is different and I’m not just talking the foods they are allergic to, but also the amount of contact that will cause a reaction and how severe that reaction will be.

So I’m going to go over a few ways you can safely celebrate Halloween with your food allergy child. Figure out which one works best for you and your family.

First up is the Teal Pumpkin Project. This was started by FARE. They are an amazing resource for food allergy families if you haven’t checked them out yet. The idea behind this initiative is that you mark your house as participating by placing a teal pumpkin out front and then passing out non food treats like pencils or stickers.

I love how this all came about and what they are trying to do, but there are some issues with the program which may make it unsafe for your kiddo.

This initiative is becoming more well known, which is great! But it’s hard to make sure it’s being used correctly. Teal pumpkins are now available to purchase in stores, sometimes without context. Someone may think it’s a design choice and place one on their step without participating. This can lead to disappointment when your kid goes to the door, or potential reactions if your child is handed unsafe food.

Another setback is lack of understanding about allergies. Some take the project to mean allergy safe foods. The tricky thing here is even if you are passing out treats that are made in a dedicated top 9 free from facility, the child might have an allergy outside of the top 9. For instance, apples are sometimes given out at Halloween because they are part of the fall season.

I’m allergic to apples. So even this single, healthy, whole food can cause me to have anaphylaxis. There is no such thing as an allergy free food because people can be allergic to anything. Allergy free is a completely individual term and should not be used in broad conversations. I’ll give an example of strawberries. They are an allergy free food for me, but not for the 3-4% of people who are allergic to the fruit.

Ok, so that’s the teal pumpkin project. Like I said, this is still a great program, but it has some drawbacks. It’s important to understand what those are so you can set realistic expectations for your kids.

Another option is to purchase treats that are safe for your child or family and hand them out ahead of time to your neighbors. This is a fun option because your kid still can go door to door and get treats they can actually eat.

There is still some worry for me here about cross contamination, the neighbor forgetting or a miscommunication in the house leading to the food being given to someone else, or a lack of willingness to participate.

At the end of the day, you’re still facing restrictions with both teal pumpkin houses and handing out things ahead of time because you’re working with preset options.

I love to find ways my daughter can participate in these types of activities unrestricted.

Which brings me to my last suggestion, the “Switch Witch” or the “Halloween Fairy”. This is the option that my family chooses to participate in.

My daughter goes out and trick or treats like everyone else. She hits up every house she can find, runs around with her friends and has an overall free night just like everyone else.

When we get home, instead of sorting through the candy, it goes immediately into a ziplock bag. From there, we leave the bag along with a note written by my daughter in an easy to find spot. We play a few games as a family like hide and seek in the dark and then she goes to bed happy and fulfilled with the experience, but also filled with excitement for the morning.

While she is sleeping the Switch Witch comes and swaps out the candy for a non food prize. In the past, she’s got things like the Harry Potter LEGO advent calendar, or a book she’d been wanting. It’s actually a win, win because there’s no upset tummies or begging for candy in the coming days. Just a fun activity that can be enjoyed for a long time.

She knows not everyone leaves their candy out for the Switch Witch and that’s ok. Everyone participates in things differently, just like Santa comes to some houses and not others. It’s all about conversations and awareness.

So, there you go. A few options for celebrating Halloween with food allergies. If you have another tip, I’d love to know in the comments.

Happy Halloween!