Halloween trick-or-treat alternatives for kids with food allergies
I vaguely remember this movement last year, but never actually saw it in execution. To be fair, we live in a rural area where you can’t exactly trick-or-treat farm to farm, but even at the many trunk-or-treat events we went to I didn’t see anything regarding teal pumpkins. I saw it all over Facebook, but that was about the extent of it. It seemed like a cool idea, and I was hoping it would gain popularity.
Apparently it did, because this year I see the tell tale teal pumpkins everywhere! In the places you’d never expect…the local grocery store, our farmers market, sitting at the end of a dirt road on the drive of an old farm straddling the border of North and South Carolina. It has arrived. The Great Teal Pumpkin is here!
The Teal Pumpkin Project focuses on bringing the joy of Halloween to kids with food allergies. Although it took awhile to reach our neck of the woods, the Teal Pumpkin Project was actually started back in 2014. According to foodallergy.org, 15 million Americans have food allergies, which accounts for about 1 in 13 children. How many kids are in your child’s class? Usually 20+…so it’s safe to say you have at least one, if not two, kids that have a food allergy.
To participate, all you do is place a teal pumpkin (or a sign) outside. That’s it. You can download and print a Teal Pumpkin sign here. This indicates that you have non-food treats available for children who cannot have candy. Suggestions for non-food items are bubbles, stickers, pencils, tattoos, crayons, and bouncy balls. I was at Costco last week and saw a giant bag of tiny containers of Play-doh that would be absolutely perfect!
Halloween is a magical day. It can also be crushing to a child when their magic is ruined. Kids with food allergies face a struggle every day of their lives. Let’s give them a day off to just be kids.
I haven’t seen any of these yet, but I love the idea. We’re one of the many families affected. When I was a kid, the night ended with sorting through the candy for anything not sealed properly and worrying about razor blades. For my kid, that has been replaced by sorting through to remove her allergy.
And for some kids, I’d imagine their allergy is so severe they can’t participate at all.
I would not be the play-doh! If the allergy is to gluten, it would not be good to give a child something that contains wheat. I only think of this because I know a little who cannot play with play-doh for that reason. I would try to avoid latex too. Hope this is helpful for someone! Last year I got parachute skeleton toys, and I have plenty left over for this year. Someone was handing out bubbles last year, and they were a huge hit in our house!
I wouldn’t GET the play-doh that is!