70% of the candy we received contained nuts. My daughter is allergic to nuts so I was having mild panic attacks that she was carrying around a bag of death for an hour! I watched her like a hawk!
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I voted No and Nuts are evil.
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Gosh, I'm sorry!! I did give out nuts candy - peanut butter cups and Almond Joys. I don't think about it because we don't have the allergy in our house.
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we gave out snickers.
i honestly didn't even think about it... i should know better, though.
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@mediagirl: don't be sorry! It's totally fine. I don't expect people to hand out allergen free candy. Nuts are delicious!!!
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There were snickers and peanut M&Ms in the mix bag I bought and I didn't even think about it! Oops!
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I didnt think about it either :((( We had a variety pack that contained snickers. I will think about this next year!
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we had a few rounds of non-nut candy: twizzlers, milk duds, skittles, jolly ranchers.
then we had to dig into DH's choco stash--reeses and snickers!
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Sorry! Not trying to make people feel bad!!!!
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@Andrea: this is interesting to think about! I think next year, I might have two bowls-a nut one, and a non-nut one! So we could do all the candy with chocolate and nuts/PB in one bowl, and things like Twizzlers, Gobstoppers, etc, in the other one. Would you feel safe with that?
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Nope, I bought only fruity sugary candy (less temptation for me and my diabetic husband), and more of it to hand out). I did but a bag of Reese's cups, buy that was totally meant for us or as a reserve in case we ran out.
I think it's good to be aware though, it isn't the first thing to come to mind for everyone. I usually give little kids a choice of what candy they want.
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Would you feel comfortable asking people for nut-free candy? I've had kids ask me that and I completely understand since I have a peanut/tree nut allergy myself. It would actually be a great thing to model for her for the future!
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We didn't hand out any but my friends had Snickers and Butterfingers!
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Nuts are evil and Halloween is the most hated holiday by parents of kids with nut allergies...as a PEanut allergy family we didn't hand any out and immediately confiscated bags after coming back to take out unsafe candy. I am a member of a PA Facebook group and there were some parents wiping down other candies to prevent cross contamination. If your kid is Anaphylactic to peanuts, Halloween is a stressful holiday
(so far we only have hives). Not meaning to guilt trip either... It's just a whole different world on this side of the allergy.
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We handed out Reese's, Butterfingers, and Almond Joy.
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@LovelyPlum: awww you're super sweet. It would be one less nut candy in her bag! But I just have to keep reinforcing that she can't open any candy until we get home and check it for safety anyway. Right now she is only 3.5 and wouldn't open anything without asking me first, but it might be different next year!
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We didn't hand out any candy, but I can see how this would be stressful for some folks.
I wish I could come up with something else to give kids (other than candy or junky foods).
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I didn't even think about that! Oh man, I'll have to remember that for next Halloween.
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@andrea: I never even thought of this! We gave out peanut M&Ms. Next year if I buy candy with nuts, I'll just keep it for myself! I'm sorry so many of the houses you visited didn't think about it either.
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@looch: we got some erasers, stickers, small toys too. Also pretzels. I was surprised!
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@T-Mom: I think if my kid was anaphylactic, I would skip ToT?
What do you think? @spaniellove: No, I don't think I would make a special issue out of it to ask! But that's just me.
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@T-Mom: pretzels in snack packs? that is super smart!
I think next year I will do a mix of stuff, like snack packs, pencils, maybe some small playdough cans, I should probably be on the look out for stuff all year long.
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@Andrea: so scary! a little friend & i did a lot of practicing of, 'trick or treat! no peanuts please, i'm allergic!' people found it cute & made sure nothing with peanuts entered their bag, but man is trick or treating with LOs with peanut allergies scary! last year there were 4 kids in the group we were walking with and 3/4 had peanut allergies, we were armed with numerous epi pens, lol
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@Andrea: I don't know!! My cousin's kid is Ana and they went to a Harvest festival instead and he was not allowed to accept any candy that was chocolate. My cousin said she found out that even lemon warheads are processed on peanut equipment. From the FB group it seemed like a mixed bag.. Some parents did not let yet kids go out (and posted pic of sad child,
) and others let them go out but had a system of either training them what they couldn't accept or having a separate bag, or doing a switch out and wipe down at home. sadness. My Dd was ok to switch out and had a tootsie roll last night and was happy !
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I didn't even think about it, but we hand out a variety of candy and people can choose what they want, so if someone's allergic to nuts, I hope they would choose the York Peppermint Patty over the Snicker's Bar (for example - we had like 8 different kinds of chocolate)!
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@LovelyPlum: I've found it easy to put aside a ziplock bag of pieces I know are definitely nut free since there usually aren't many kids who need nut free candy...that way it's hard to mix up!
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I wouldn't ever give out candy that contained nuts. Everyone likes Kit Kat bars.
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@looch: that's super nice of you to be so considerate!
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I think if my kid was anaphylactic, I would skip ToT all together. My mom didn't like Halloween in general and always offered to just buy us a couple bags of our favorite candies in exchange for not having to go out. I'd probably do something similar and maybe try to plan a Halloween party or something fun where LO could still dress up.
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Oh, and the wipe down is definitely a good idea...when I was sorting a bag that included Butterfingers I found a piece that had gotten out of the wrapper and crumbled so the PB had touched a lot of wrappers. But of course a kid/parent would never know.
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We had Snickers and Reeses Peanut Butter cups in the mix, but also non-nut, non-chocolate options. However, we usually let kids grab their own option out of the bowl and it seemed they were sort of selecting randomly, so I'm not sure if a child was nut-free they were actually getting something nut-free from our house, you know? We do have one family in the neighborhood whose little boy has severe allergies. His grandma always comes to the house first and asks us to give him a goodie bag with safe treats in it for him. That seems like a lot of work, but I guess if my child was severely allergic I might do that for a couple years so he could still have a normal Halloween experience.
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Definitely handed out nut candy! (Those are the best ones, IMO). It's not my responsibility to be the Allergy Police for each child in my neighborhood (that's up to the parent). I had no second thoughts about it.
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Nope - we do Lemon Heads every year!
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LO is allergic to peanuts, milk, and eggs. While it was fun to go trick-or-treating, he could only eat pretzels, twizzlers, Swedish fish, and sour patch kids.
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Yup, but we also had a bunch of Airheads. Even chocolate candy without nuts in it is usually processed in a facility with nuts. PLUS, chocolate has it's own allergy issues (dairy, soy). Airheads are pretty much straight sugar so they are largely allergen free.
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Eep! I didn't even think about it. Next year, I'll add sour patch to our mix. We gave out starburst, is that nut free?
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@T-Mom: It's partly selfish, I don't want my son to get a bunch of candy that he can't and shouldn't really eat, and I don't want it around! I do feel for the parents that have to deal with the allergies and whatnot, I think we all have to make each other's lives a little easier where we can.
I might do a bowl of candy for the older kids that come through.
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@pui: yep, kit kats are my go-to for Halloween. They're made in nut-free facilities!
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I did....because I ate all the non-nut candy myself
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@looch: yes, we got a few Halloween pretzel packs from school! They asked people to bring in nut free stuff so we got pretzels, goldfish (also in a Halloween package!), lollipops, and yogurt covered raisins.
@T-Mom: oh dear, good to know about the lemon warheads!
@pui: @Shutterbug: I buy Kit Kats, too!
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