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The Trick of Keeping Halloween a Treat!

© Jeni Tambush

Halloween can be a 'frightening' experience for parents of newly diagnosed children. After diagnosis we become painfully aware of the fact that most traditional holidays share the theme of 'food and lots of it' but Halloween is different in that it is meant mainly for children and it involves the one thing that we have had to strictly control in our child's life: SUGAR!!

As parents we realize that our child's body is unable deal with the heavy intake of candy that is traditionally a part of Halloween yet at the same time, we strive do raise our children with as much normalcy as possible. Halloween is that one time of year when the rubber hits the road and as a parent, you must concede that your child is indeed very different than the other trick or treaters.

One question I hear frequently this time of year from other parents of children with diabetes or people who know that my son has diabetes is; what about Halloween? It's an easy question for me because our family has never been really big on Halloween and trick or treating even before our son was diagnosed. You could probably count the number of times that all seven of our children have trick or treated on one hand and still have fingers left over. Our reasons are simple, safety concerns and personal beliefs, but we understand and respect that Halloween is a big thing to most families. As a family we spend the evening being entertained by the ghosts and vampires that knock on our front door as our children hand out the treats if we can get them away from the scary movie marathon that we hold every Halloween.

If Halloween has been a special night for your child before diagnosis, then by all means, continue the tradition after diagnosis. Dressing up and knocking on doors is the biggest part of the night anyway. The tricky part is addressing the issue of the loot and how to handle it in a way so as to not make your child feel that they are being deprived.

I've had several parents tell me that they take their child out and allow them to collect as much candy as they can. The parents go through the bags and fish out the candy that they feel comfortable with as far as being able to work into their child's diet. Candy such as 'Smarties,' 'Lifesavers,' and 'Starburst' are excellent sources of fast acting sugar that can be stashed into glove compartments, teacher's desks, and any other place where you would want to keep fast acting sugar to treat hypos.

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