It’s almost that time of year again - The time when little children all across America put on a costume and roam the neighborhood or local parties to gather candy as they Trick-or-Treat! Then, they come home and dump out their buckets and begin to feast on sugar. But wait! What do you do if your child is a diabetic? Or, what do you do if your child has a peanut allergy since many candies include peanuts? Can they enjoy Trick or Treat, or will they be benched and banned from all the fun?
There are some alternatives for these children. First, check with your local juvenile diabetes groups as many host non-candy parties. If your child has a peanut allergy, check with local groups as well as there are many across America who host peanut-free parties. In the case of one local family, they will be attending both since they have one child with a severe peanut allergy and one recently diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.
Second - Let them put on their costumes & attend parties or trick or treat. Let them fill up their bags with candy. When they return home, let them exchange their candy for toy money. You can use Monopoly money or such. Each candy is worth $1.00 in play money. Then, let them go "shopping" for little trinkets or small toys, stickers or fun little inexpensive items that you have purchased beforehand. In this way, they enjoy the fun of the parties or the door-to-door knocking fun; but, they don’t have the ill effects of the candy.
If you prefer, exchange each piece of candy for a penny & then allow the child to take their earnings to a toy store and pick out a special purchase.
What to do with the exchanged candy? If your party takes place before door-to-door trick or treating, you can give out the candy yourself or donate to someone to do so. You can simply throw it away as it’s only going to cause harm if your child eats it. Or, if you have no allergy or diabetes issues, choose what you like and share it with your spouse. Or, providing it’s wrapped, donate it to Samaritan’s Purse Christmas shoeboxes. Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian organization who provides gifts of shoeboxes filled with gifts and gospel booklets to third world countries and to orphans and such who would otherwise receive nothing at Christmas time.
Whatever you chose to do with the candy, make sure it’s not ingested by your peanut-allergic or juvenile diabetic child. But, there’s no reason the child should have to forfeit the fun of dressing up and having a childhood memory simply because the "treat" is not so good for them. In reality, it’s not so good for any of us to have all that sugar in such a large blast. So, even if your household has no allergies and no glucose level issues, consider giving other items as your "treat" besides candy.
