Halloween is my child’s favorite holiday. Managing a gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, fake-food free Halloween is not for the faint of heart, but a Halloween free of additives and all the major allergens is a true possibility. It just requires some planning. OK, a lot of planning. So here is what we plan to do this year. Steal it if you like and I will let you know how it goes.
1) I am setting up a trade of candy for video games – Our neighborhood is extremely popular with trick or treaters. As a result each home can plan to hand out about 400 pieces of candy. That is expensive. We spend about $60 per year on candy. I told my son he could get Temple Run and a Minecraft trade up in exchange for the candy that he collects. He liked the idea. He prefers the games and I prefer that he have them as well. I wish I could take credit for this idea but I stole it from a friend.
2) I have purchased a decent stash of “safe” packaged candy – Part of the holiday involves eating a lot of candy. Fortunately there are options now. For anyone needing to avoid all major allergens, Enjoy Life has a variety of chocolate bars and Surf Sweets has fresh fruit juice based gel bears which we found at Whole Foods. There are also organic lollipops and SunCups (sunbutter cups that are surprisingly similar to our favorite sometimes gluten-free peanut butter cups) These foods are kosher, free of artificial flavors and colors and free of both corn and all of the major allergens. They don’t taste exactly like their more artificial counterparts but they mean that almost every child can have chocolate, lollipops and gummy candy on Halloween. That was not true two years ago. If you can tolerate nuts, Justin’s has a dark chocolate peanut butter cup treat. It is also sealed in an airtight package so as not to contaminate the other candy or the household. There are links at the end of this post to the manufacturers of these candies so you can check them out and see if they are a fit for your family.
3) I have discussed this plan in advance with my child – I would not recommend this with a preschooler but my school age child is aware of his dietary limitations and we worked this out together.
4) When all else fails, it is possible to make candy from scratch – I am not planning to do this, but I have a friend who does make her own candies. If your child just loves something that is not available in a safe version, there is probably a way to make it. Not that I have ever attempted vegan nougat or dairy free caramel, but I remain convinced that it can occur. Sunbutter cups can be made.
The Enjoy Life Chocolate Bars Site can be found here
http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/chocolate-bars/
The SunCups site is here
http://suncups.com/
The Surf Sweets Gummi bears website is here
http://www.surfsweets.com/products_gummybears.php
And the Yummy Earth organic lollipops are available here
http://yummyearth.com/natural_organic_lollipops.html
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
