Confessions of a Scary Halloween-Candy Control Mom

By Anna Soref

On October 31 the kids will awaken almost as excited as they will on Christmas morning (or the first day of Hanukkah). It’s Halloween and there will be treats at school and probably the most fun evening of the year. My daughter will celebrate her thirteenth Halloween this year. She and two other friends will dress as emojis (those happy and sad faces you see added to texts) and hit our neighborhood solo. My husband and I will sip wine on the stoop and hand out candy and enjoy the kids’ costumes. But it wasn’t always this relaxed. 

I remember my daughter’s first eight or so Halloweens as fun but stressful as I agonized about the candy consumption. No, I wasn’t worried about razor blades or cyanide; I was worried about sugar consumption. I mean, really worried. Should I limit the pieces she could consume that night? Should I force her to eat a handful of nuts each hour to balance the sugar load? Should I just let her go for it and eat whatever she wanted?

What was I so worried about? Well, she could get a migraine or a sugar hangover the next day; or was it possible all the sugar would program her taste buds to want it or need it? I know, total worry overkill. But given my line of work as a wellness writer and editor, I read daily about the downside of sugar. My kid was the one who went to school each day with a thermos of warm quinoa and tempeh or lentil soup.

Looking back, I realize that I probably did overthink it. But I do have a kid who today will say, “I’ve had too much junk lately; I need a salad.” I’m happy she has a baseline of what it feels like to fuel oneself on healthy food. These days I let her eat whatever she wants when it comes to sugar, for the most part. Yet I do feel my earlier efforts helped her to establish the eating habits she has today. For the parents out there with young kids who overthink the sugar consumption that runs rampant on Halloween, here are some tips I learned and used throughout the years:

• Ensure the kids get a good night’s sleep the night before Halloween. Start bedtime early with a warm bath scented with relaxing lavender oil. Enjoy an extra long story time so they can unwind.
• Make breakfast and lunch on Halloween extra protein-heavy. This will aid in avoiding sugar lows that can result from carbs and candy.
• Give the kids dinner before they go out trick-or-treating. Again, make it a protein-rich meal.
• Whether or not you limit candy depends on your child. Does he or she have special needs that require attention to sugar intake? If so, then make whatever limitations you need to.
• Talk to your kids about sugar and explain why it’s not such a good idea to gorge on it; explain in simple terms what it does in the body. Also explain that eating too much sugar sometimes is fun and totally OK!
• Put one or two pieces of candy in your child’s lunch for a day or two following Halloween. Most kids come to school with candy, and this allows your child to fit in.
• Keep the candy out of view, and chances are the kids will forget about it pretty quickly. Really.
• Give candy to the Halloween Fairy. Let the kids pick out ten pieces to keep, then put the rest out one night for the Halloween Fairy, who might just leave a prize.

Sometimes the simple things like trick-or-treating get complicated in this age of information overload. I’m all about the middle road. I know what this means for me; consider what it means for you, and your Halloween will be a bit more relaxed.