Last night, we had one of us run ahead with a bowl of goldfish, raisins and fruit snack for each person to hand to our kids. Would you do that? Some people thought it was so clever and some thought it was kind of silly. It worked great and our kids don't have any candy temptation. They still got hopped up on carbs and fruit snacks though!
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We told Charlie that if he saved up all of his candy, he'd get a toy... it worked!!
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I could see this especially helpful for those with allergies!
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@mrbee: nice move!
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@T.H.O.U.: a major part of our concern.
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i personally wouldn't but we don't have allergies (yet) to deal with. but i LOVE the idea @mrbee: gave!
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@Mrs. Jacks: Brilliant.
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@Mrs. Jacks: a close friend of mine is vegan and her 4 year old has a "Halloween shop" every year the day after trick or treating. She wraps up presents and he "buys" them from her with his candy. Then she gives the candy away to her friends who want to eat it. She also carried snacks/treats for him to eat during trick or treating. So far he loves it and has never complained about not getting to eat his candy. I love the idea and will likely try something similar when LO gets old enough to realize whats going in.
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My parents always let us eat one piec a day. We also only went to maybe 15 houses, because we lived in the middle of nowhere and had to drive. I figure we will do something like this, starting when she is old enough to trick or treat (age 3 or 4, I guess). No allergy issues, though.
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Nah, we let her have one piece of candy and she hasn't asked for more.
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Need strategy. In the past, he'd forget about the candy the next day. His younger sister has already forgotten about all the candy. I don't think that will work for him this year. Your strategy has given me the idea to switch out of the of the candy in his stash with something else.
@beachbee: That's a neat idea!
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One of our neighbors has a little boy with severe allergies and his grandma always comes to the door ahead of him and asks us to give him a goodie bag of safe treats. We are always happy to oblige, of course. I think we would only do this in the case of allergies, not just to keep the kids healthy or anything.
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Only for allergies. Otherwise, I think it's a little much.
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So you went up to the house and gave them something to hand to your children?
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We have a local dentist who buys candy back from kids the day after Halloween, and mails it in care packages to our overseas military members. I think it's a great idea!
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If my kid had life threatening allergies like Lala I would totally do this. Otherwise, I wouldn't. I think delayed gratification is an important thing for kids to learn. Just because they got a lot of candy at one time that doesn't mean they get to eat a lot of candy at one time.
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@MamaMoose: agree!
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No, all in moderation! We let her have a bit of a sweet here and there.
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Just for allergies. I plan on eating most of his candy until he is old enough to know better. And then teach him moderation and rationing!
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@locavore_mama: We had a bowl full of allergy-safe treats for the homeowner to allow our kids to choose from. They still had options, just the options that we know aren't processed in way that would contain nuts. I suppose we could have included hard candy, but we decided that healthy was an added bonus.
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Mine's not old enough to eat anything, but my only "concern" about this is if lots of people did it. We get 300+ trick or treaters in our neighbourhood (but DH and I always work Halloween and are never home, so I really don't have much practical experience handing out candy), but I would imagine I'd have trouble keeping track of which kids I was supposed to hand the special stuff out to, and would probably be kind of irritated about it being made more difficult. If it was just a handful of kids and I was explained about an actual allergy or something, I'd be more sympathetic.
I was with my niece and nephew (7 and 4) last night and they actually didn't seem that interested in eating the candy anyway, so I think trading it for a toy or other privileges would have worked well on them.
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Um, no way! Finding raisins in my candy pail would make me sad.
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@photojane: haha I agree but I don't like raisins unless they are chocolate covered
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@Sapphiresun: We just did it as we were walking up to the door. One of us would knock on the door a few seconds before we arrived. We wouldn't go up to a house if there were multiple other groups.
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@Bao: aren't those the only kind of raisins?! Only kind worth eating at least!
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Maybe for life threatening allergies.
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@photojane: I don't know, my girls were picking the yogurt covered ones. We told them they could have one of their treats when we got home and they both picked those.
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@Mrs. Jacks: Oh ok, I was thinking you did it like this guy. In this case I'd be super sympathetic to his case, but 300 letters for kids whose parents just prefer they don't eat candy would be kind of a nightmare!
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@MamaMoose: totally agree!
In the case of allergies, you've got to do whatever it takes for a fun, safe Halloween. Otherwise, there are great lessons to be learned about patience, delayed gratification, enjoying things in moderation etc. If parents are going to eat it or it's getting donated with a 'buy back' it's one thing, but if I was just going to take candy from people to throw it away I'd try to think of an alternative activity. Maybe get together with like-minded people and trick or treat for treats you feel are appropriate.
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