![]() During our city’s trick-or-treat hours, they dressed up in their costumes and stood excitedly by the door waiting to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. My kids accompanied me to the store every year to buy big bags of their favorite, safe candy. So our trick-or-treat tradition became this. Wendy and Alex Schwabe work on painting pumpkins teal in order to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project to include children with food allergies in trick-or-treating celebrations.įor Alex, the excitement of traipsing through the neighborhood in costume wasn’t enough to outweigh the fact that she would get her hopes up at each house, only to be disappointed more often than not to see something like a bag of M&Ms dropped in her bucket. Although labeling laws require the most common food allergens to be listed, the bags of bulk candy people typically buy for trick-or-treat are often labeled on the main bag, but not on the candy the kids actually receive. ![]() Snickers bars, peanut butter cups and Butterfingers could be donated to a parent, friend or charity, but so many of the individually wrapped, fun-size candies that typically land in our kids’ plastic pumpkins don’t have ingredient labels on them. How does a kid have fun trick-or-treating when they can’t eat most of the candy? And it’s not just the stuff that’s obviously unsafe. One thing we discussed was the most revered of kid-friendly holiday celebrations - trick-or-treat. When my daughter started school, she happened to join a class with several students with peanut allergies, and the moms of those kids quickly became my friend group. More: Here are 9 alternative trick-or-treat events happening in the Milwaukee area in 2022 Trick-or-treating when you can't eat the candy More: Here are some not-so-scary Milwaukee area Halloween events Even so, my face remained red for much of the parade. After I stumbled over my words to explain myself, the mayor even offered to open up the (safe!) candy to give Alex a few pieces before the parade started. Here I’m remembering the Fourth of July when, as my family waited for the parade to start, I surreptitiously glanced at the bag of candy I saw sitting on one of the floats, hoping that when the parade started and the candy was thrown from the float, I could tell Alex it was safe for her to grab.Īpparently, I wasn’t as subtle as I thought I was because, as I reached out to move the bag so I could better read the label, I heard an “Excuse me” and turned around to see the driver of the float - who happened to be the mayor of our town - asking me what I was doing.Įverything turned out fine. We’ve also had some embarrassing moments that are funny in hindsight. Like the times we’ve gone into candy stores with high hopes of finding a fun treat, only to discover that everything was cross-contaminated. Like the restaurants we’ve found that are willing to specially make her favorite food - french fries - either by baking them or frying them separately from other foods.Īnd we’ve had losses. Luckily, because she was a picky toddler, playing with her food instead of eating it, her reaction wasn’t as bad as it could have been.Īs we drove home from the hospital that night - after she was given steroids and Benadryl, and we were given a prescription for an EpiPen and an appointment with an allergist - my immediate thoughts were on clearing our house of everything with peanuts, wondering how to read food labels and how we would avoid future allergic reactions.Įventually, as I got used to our new normal (which included severe allergies to both peanuts and eggs), my concerns turned to the things I was worried Alex wouldn’t be able to enjoy like a non-allergic child can - classroom birthday treats, impromptu weekend trips to bakeries and ice cream shops and all the food-centered celebrations that come with holidays. Her eye swelled shut and her skin broke out in head-to-toe hives. ![]() ![]() My daughter, Alex, had an allergic reaction to peanut butter when she was 3. Many families who participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project provide Halloween-themed toys for kids with food allergies during trick or treat. ![]()
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