Prevent Weight Gain at Halloween

Posted by Tracy Rose Oct 29, 2007

From a child's point of view, Halloween is only an excuse to eat handfuls of candy. From a parenting standpoint, however, too much candy makes our kids hyper, ruins their teeth and drives up our dental bills and fills our kids with nutritionally void food choices.

It is possible to prevent weight gain at Halloween and to steer clear of unhealthy food choices like candy.

• Serve a healthy dinner.
• Prepare a healthy, high fiber snack for post-trick-or-treating.
• Trick-or-treat with friends or extended family to make it more fun.
• Work together to make your own Halloween costumes.
• Carve or draw faces on your pumpkins together as a family.
• Choose something to pass out to trick-or-treaters that doesn’t contain sugar.
• Sort candy by categories and make a chart to compare how many suckers, hard and is, chocolate bars, pieces of gum or meal coupons you receive for Halloween. This is a great man's project for elementary age kids.
• Watch a favorite Halloween movie together.
• Create your own Halloween decorations up and put them up.
• It is Halloween is a time to discuss healthy eating habits of your children.
• Allow some candy and teach her children about portion control.
• Assist your children and brushing their teeth immediately after eating the candy.

With these tips you can prevent weight gain at Halloween. Candy is far from the only thing to think about at Halloween so get creative. Have fun with your family instead of putting the focus just on candy.