Trick-or-Treating with Food Allergies

When our daughter was first diagnosed with food allergies, we had to come up with a successful strategy to keep the holiday fun even though she couldn't participate in the main event: candy.

We decide to focus our energy on the event of trick-or-treating and the costumes involved: we trick-or-treat with lots of friends in the neighborhood, work long and hard on costumes, and march in a neighborhood halloween costume parade! It's lots of fun!

But, despite our efforts to create a family halloween tradition not focused on candy, there's still the issue of candy. 

What we've chosen to do is this:

1. After trick or treating she looks through her grub.

2. She chooses a few pieces to give to friends.

3. We give her an allergy safe candy bar.

4. She sells her candy to the local orthodontist the next day.

To support this don't-focus-on-candy-tradition, we've decided to not give out candy to trick-or-treaters. Instead, we give out candy alternatives that alternate between these ideas:

1.  Hand out goods instead of food: We hand out pencils, stickers, erasers, rings, fake teeth, fake eyeballs, small decks of cards, glow sticks, etc. instead of candy each year.

2. Hand out food instead of candy: We give out snack bags of popcorn, pretzels, or cheddar crackers, trail mix, mini boxes of raisins, or bags of dried fruits. (Don't make the baggies yourself; buy the prepackaged servings.)

3. Hand out coins instead of goods or food: we get a roll of nickels, dimes, or quarters from the bank and drop coins in halloween bags instead of candy.