Today is trick or treating in our area and I have to be honest, I’m not looking forward to this. I love that the boys have fun but I don’t love the overstimulation that follows. I have dubbed this, the fallout.
There is always fallout after events like this.
Typically, we will see fighting, screaming, meltdowns, sleepless nights and even some temporary regression, after a very stimulating event such as trick or treating.
However, there is one problem that I hadn’t even thought about until just now. Food Allergies.
Elliott has some pretty serious food allergies. What are the chances of his candy being nut free or not made on shared equipment. For that matter, what are the chances of his candy even being labeled? Not very…….on both accounts.
How do you handle that? He’s destined to be disappointed.
This is our first time dealing Halloween and food allergies because trick or treating was rained out last year. Deep down inside, I’m hoping for the same thing this year.
If it’s raining, perhaps we can do something else and end up not having to deal with this in the first place.
How in the heck do you manage trick or treating when your child has Autism and food allergies?
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My son had nut allergies too. We always buy a bag of candy or treats just for him. Then replace his nut candy with what we bought. He is good about asking if it has nuts now so I am wondering what he will say when we go TOT.
i know it is a pain, but we have kids that announce it when they come to the door, and ask for nut free treats. we keep chocolate bars and other treats in separate bowls, in case.
you could make a NO NUT symbol to tape onto his treat bag. on on his chest if he allows. then the people at the houses will know. people should know when they bought the treats if the box said nut free. and to be honest, these days, people should try to purchase nut free.
You could always have a bag or 2 of something he can eat on hand to replace his loot with
I always try to have both on hand so if they ask i have something 2 of my neighbors give out toys or candy and let the kids choose
My son has nut allergies but we still go out because he loves it. When we get home I remove the candy he can’t eat and replace it with candy he can eat from the stuff we bought to give out. He’s completely fine with it because he knows what will happen if he eats candy with nuts in it.
We had friends that put special
Bags together and gave them to the neighbors to hand out to their child so he could go trick or treating and be sure to get a safe treat for his allergies.
My mom gives out the candy & we have non candy items & do not mix the candy that have nuts with the ones that don’t. I make sure they are in different bowls. Good luck.
While we don’t have any allergies, we just made a rule that no eating anything until we had a chance to check all the candy first. We always pull anything that is loose, open or questionable, it wouldn’t be too hard to go ahead and pull allergy related stuff to. Maybe have a back up stash to use to replace what is pulled? My son is big on following “the rules” and since we have always made it a big deal, he follows it pretty strictly.
Tammy – that is a great idea. We can’t have much that is handed out. Our son just enjoys the experience of going door to door and seeing all of the costumes. We give him money for his candy. I also make sure to have special things he can eat on hand. He is pretty used to it. We have know for almost 4 years that he cannot have any food dye. You know that sometimes dentists will trade money for candy. It’s not a lot but, see how much they can get and trade it in for cash.
Or maybe dress up but stay home and be the kids who trick !!
Maybe you could offer to switch the candy out for something that he really wants?
I read of a family that went and bought things their child could use (the child couldn’t eat by mouth) wrote up a little letter with it and asked passed it out to neighbors explaining that they would like their child to enjoy the experience and that they would be dressed up as ____ and please hand out the enclosed treat to their child.