Ten Allergy-Safe Ways to Celebrate Halloween

by Kelley Lindberg


First, a quick “candy corn update”: http://www.peanutfreeplanet.com/ is now selling A and J Bakery Candy Corn that is nut-free, peanut-free, and gluten-free, but it still contains soy, egg, and corn. (For those of you who hate candy corn, I apologize for the updates – but it’s a hot topic every year!)

Meanwhile…Halloween is about more than candy corn (yes, it’s true!). It’s also about parties and trick-or-treating, both of which can add stress to an already-stressed parent of allergic kids. So it’s time to post some suggestions for ways to help take the “scary” out of Halloween.

Especially for parents of newly diagnosed kids, this holiday brings up a lot of questions. Should we let them go trick-or-treating? Should we have a party instead? Should we stay home, lock the doors, and turn out the lights? What about that giant bag of unsafe candy?!!

In our family, we’ve discovered that the candy is really the least important part of the holiday. The adventure is the best part. Candy seems like the goal (“I’m going to fill this WHOLE bucket!”), but it’s really just the excuse for dressing up, running around the neighborhood in the dark squealing with flashlights, and getting together with friends.

Focus on the adventure, and create your Halloween traditions around the parts of the holiday your kids love best. Here are ten ideas for a fun Halloween:

1. Go trick-or-treating. If they want to trick-or-treat, don’t be afraid of it. There are plenty of things you can do with unsafe candy afterwards, and if the kids know about the rules ahead of time, it will be surprisingly easy to keep them safe while doing it. (I’ll post my tips for safe trick-or-treating next week. I promise you can do this if your kids have their hearts set on it!)

2. Have a party at your house – that way you can control the food that comes in and out of your door. Kids can wear costumes, decorate mini pumpkins, play games, or watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” (Okay, it’s probably too tame for kids these days, but it was always MY favorite.) If you go to a party at someone else’s house, call them ahead of time to offer your help planning the menu, bringing safe treats, etc.

3. Visit a haunted house or Lagoon’s Frightmares (which has attractions for tiny tots as well as older kids and teens).

4. Get lost in a corn maze. Many of them have additional attractions, like small rides, hayrides, or pumpkin patches.

5. Rent The Nightmare Before Christmas and snuggle up together in the dark with your favorite safe popcorn or candy. Wear your costumes, or indulge in some Halloween pajamas for the whole family!

6. Catch a movie at the theater (the kids can dress up!).

7. If your kids are a little older, reserve tickets for a “ghost tour” of your local city. In Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah, you can find these tours offered by storytellers through Ogden & Salt Lake City Ghost Tours. (Just be sure to buy your tickets ahead of time.) The tours run from Oct 20 – Oct 31, 2011.

8. Stage a “Zombies vs Aliens” soccer game or Frisbee match – invite all their friends to join. It could be even more fun after dark with glowstick-bracelets (available at most dollar stores)! (Or it could be “Zombies vs. Humans,” “Princesses vs Superheros” or any other combination your kids like.)

9. Attend the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City. It’s not to be confused with Halloween at all, but this Mexican celebration honors and remembers loved ones who have passed. The Cultural Center is hosting this annual family-oriented community gathering featuring altar displays, folk art exhibit, and more. You don’t have to be Catholic or of Mexican descent to attend – what a great way to expand your kids’ horizons and bring new meaning to “remembering our lost ones.” (Note that skulls made of sugar and bread shaped like human bodies or bones is a traditional part of Día de los Muertos, so be aware that there will be allergens present.) The celebration istelf will be on Nov. 2, 2011, from 6pm - 9pm, but he altars will be on display from Oct 17 - Nov 3.

10. And finally, don’t forget UFAN’s FOOD-FREE Halloween Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011, at the Intermountain Medical Center (southwest parking lot), 5121 Cottonwood St., Murray, UT. Decorate the trunk of your car, and bring plenty of non-edible goodies (small toys and novelties – no candy or food!) to pass out. There will be decorated trunk prizes and festive music, so don’t miss it! See UFAN’s website, http://www.utahfoodallergy.org/, for more info. This year’s Trunk-or-Treat is presented by UFAN, the Utah Eosinophilic Disorders Support Group, and the Intermountain PKU and Allied Disorders Association.

There’s plenty to do this Halloween where you can control the food your child comes into contact with. So have fun, and don't get spooked by Halloween!

Celebrate That Can of Soup!

One of the women on our UFAN forum this week discovered a can of Progresso soup that contains no nuts, milk, egg, gluten, or seafood (Chicken and Wild Rice flavor). In short, her son can eat it! She posted her discovery on the email list to share her joy at finding a safe “convenience food” that her son can have. All over the state, parents were quietly cheering for her. We all related to her discovery.

Non-allergic people can’t possibly understand how exciting that find was. But the rest of us on that forum know the feeling. It seems ridiculous – a simple thing like canned soup makes you weak in the knees? Come on, get a life.

Well, guess what? This IS our life. And finding a new food that your kid can consume can be as exciting as winning a new car on a game show. Trust me. Discovering Sunbutter (sunflower butter) kept me thrilled for weeks because it brought my son’s list of things he can eat for school lunch up to 3. Finding a good “safe” recipe for chocolate cake has kept my circle of friends giddy through several years’ worth of birthday parties.

Even my non-allergic friends get into this cuisine treasure hunt now. One day a friend called me from a craft store, of all places. “Let me read you this ingredients label,” she said, with nervous excitement in her voice. She read it. Not only did the ingredients sound safe, but then she read a final notice that actually explained how it was made in a factory that did NOT process nuts, eggs, milk, or other allergens.

“That sounds wonderful,” I said. “What is it?”

“Circus peanuts!” she exclaimed. Remember those orange marshmallowy peanut-shaped candies from our childhood? Who knew there was a safe brand of those floating around? Her kids aren’t allergic to anything. But she’s known us long enough that it’s become second nature to her to check ingredients labels, so when she stumbled across them, she couldn’t wait to call and let us know.

Sure, maybe we’re a little kooky because the discovery of a milk-free and nut-free brand of chocolate chips (F.M.V. at Smith’s) is cause for celebration. Perhaps we’re a tad bonkers because we spend an afternoon calling everyone we know to tell them we’ve found a safe boxed cake mix (Cherrybrook Kitchen).

Then again, life is all about the little moments that make us happy. And these discoveries are precisely that.

So next time you’re in the grocery store and you discover something new that your kid can eat, don’t be shy. Let out a whoop. Do a little dance. We’ll cheer you on.