REAL TALK: Halloween is a holiday for the kids. The whole point is for kids to dress up in a costume of their choice and walk around getting endless amounts of free candy. FREE and UNLIMITED CANDY! I mean how cool is that?
But if you’re a child with food allergies, Halloween can be full of all tricks and no treats. To give all kids the true Halloween experience, you need to re-think your treats.
To put it simply, you’re going to have to ditch the mindset of the classic chocolate treats like Reese’s, Snickers, and Twix.
Instead, think sugar. Picture those massive Pixie Stix that should probably be illegal for children to consume. Sugar is your new mindset! Are you with me?
We visited our local Target to show you just how many allergy-friendly options there are readily available. Below is a list of “normal” candy that we found in the Halloween aisles. They’re all free of the Top 8 allergens (peanuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, and soy).
Top 8 allergy-friendly candy
Charms Pops
Dots
Dum Dums
Fun Dip
Skittles
Smarties
Sour Patch Kids
Starburst
Swedish Fish
If you’re looking to pass out something that’s more snack-like, these items are also readily available:
Top 8 allergy-friendly halloween snacks
Garden Veggie Chips Ghosts & Bats
GoGo Squeez Applesauce Pouches
Good Health Monster Shaped Veggie Chips
Made Good Chocolate Chip Granola Mini Bars
PopCorners
Since we only keep peanut, egg, and wheat out of our household, we still love to eat treats like Rice Krispy Treats and Pirate’s Booty that contain dairy. Is it okay for us to pass these out on Halloween? Absolutely! Naturally, you might be wondering then if it’s okay for you to still pass out your traditional Milky Way or 3 Musketeers.
The answer is, yes!
3 ways to make halloween fun for all
If your goal is to make Halloween inclusive for all kids, here are my three suggestions:
- Only pass out items that are free of the top allergens.
- Have two separate candy bowls. One would be for allergy-friendly treats and the other would be for your typical candy. This way, kids can choose which bucket fits their specific needs and wants.
- Pass out non-food treats like stickers, pencils, bubbles, etc.
Now that you know how easy it is to create a Halloween night full of treats, I hope you’ll consider doing so. For a larger list of allergy-friendly candy, check out Spokin’s Halloween Candy Guide.
If you do choose to participate and are looking for a way to let allergy-kids know you have treats for them, simply place a teal-colored pumpkin out (The Teal Pumpkin Project). Teal is the color for food allergies and a teal pumpkin is a symbol they’ll instantly recognize!
Happy Halloween from Woody, Bo Peep, Jessie, & Buzz!
