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Alert: Product and Recall Notices9 Tips For Celebrating Halloween With Diabetes
Between trick-or-treating, parties, and festivals, Halloween can one big sugar rush, but it doesn’t have to be. Your child with diabetes can enjoy Halloween treats in moderation, but keep in mind there’s more to October 31 than sweets. Here are 9 tips for celebrating the spooky holiday without sending glucose levels soaring.
1. Plan Ahead
Sit down with your child and discuss your Halloween plans in advance so they know what to expect. Create some boundaries and general rules, and involve them in the decision making throughout the festivities. They’ll be more likely to be on board with a plan they helped create. Find out what’s most important to them about the day, and try to work together to meet in the middle so diabetes management can remain a priority.
2. Prepare Activities That Don’t Involve Food
Take the focus off of candy by encouraging arts and crafts projects, pumpkin carving/painting contests, watching a Halloween movie, visiting a haunted house, or going on a hayride. This is a great way to create memories that don’t involve food.
3. Participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project
The Teal Pumpkin Project by Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) raises awareness of food allergies and promotes inclusion of all trick-or-treaters. You can join by handing out non-food treats, such as bookmarks, stickers and glow sticks for trick-or-treaters, and paint a pumpkin teal to place in front of your home, along with a free printable sign from FARE, to indicate you have non-food treats available. This is a great option not just for food allergy families, but for anyone who wants to be inclusive of all kids and celebrate the holiday without too many sweets.
4. Avoid Snacking on Candy Until Home
Planning to go trick-or-treating? Make sure your child eats smart earlier in the day so they can start off the evening with normal blood sugar. Then, make a pact with your child to avoid snacking until you’re both home from trick-or-treating. Once you’ve returned home, your child can dose the correct amount of insulin to cover the carbs in the candy he/she is about to eat.
Find carb counts for popular Halloween candy here.
5. Use Candy to Treat a Low
D-Mom Extraordinaire, Meri Schuhmacher, recommends keeping non-chocolate candy that can be used to treat future lows, like starburst and skittles, and divide them up into servings of 15 grams of carbohydrates and bag them individually. Store the bags of candy in easy to reach places (like your child’s backpack, your bag or car). According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), chocolate and other higher-fat treats do not work well for treating lows so those can be set aside for purposes other than treating a low.
6. Limit Pieces of Candy Per Day
Teaching moderation is important, and it’s not good for anyone to eat too much candy in a day. Set a rule as to how many pieces of candy your child can eat a day, as long as their blood glucose isn’t high, and then stick to it. Apply this rule to everyone in the house, not just the child with diabetes.
7. Select Favorite Candy; Rid the Rest
Have your child pick their favorite pieces of candy, and get rid of the rest. Your child can enjoy a few pieces of candy throughout the week, and you can use it as an opportunity to show them how to cover their carbohydrates with insulin. Again, apply this tip to all children in the house so the child with diabetes isn’t singled out.
8. Donate Extra Candy
You can donate the extra candy to a variety of different community groups, a local children’s hospital, or troops overseas through the Halloween Candy Buy-Back program. The program allows kids to turn in their candy to participating dentists’ offices throughout the country in exchange for a goody bag or other prize. These are also great ways to get your child excited about giving back.
9. Make a Trade
Allow your children to trade pieces of their candy for something else not food related, such as a movie ticket, trip to the zoo, new toy, money, or a gift card. This can help redefine the word “treat.”
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About Author
Naomi Kingery
Customer Experience DesignerNaomi Kingery Ruperto, also known as The Diabetic Diva®, was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 12. Through the years she has used her voice in the diabetes community as a blogger and the author of the Sugar Free Series, which includes Sugar Free Me, Sugar Free Teens, Sugar Free Support, and Sugar Free Journey. Her personal connection with Medtronic began in 2002 when she received her first MiniMed® insulin pump. And in 2009 she chose to build a career at Medtronic because of her passion towards the Medtronic Mission. Naomi works on the Customer Experience team representing the voice of the diabetes community every day. Outside of work, she loves her family, her church, her bulldog, and the color pink!
This was very well written!…. so much truth to what you wrote! In my opinion, this is a very important topic. Thank you very much for revealing this topic in full.
Living with T1D and managing Halloween can be challenging. For me, I choose two items I want to have (thanks, kids) and commit to eating those items only. We donate most of our candy to Treats for Troops to put smiles on the faces of our brace men and women over seas.
Vincent, thank you for sharing your tips for celebrating Halloween with us. It makes me so happy to hear you donate most of your candy to the troops. That’s very thoughtful of you, and I’m sure all of the troops really appreciate your act of kindness and generosity. Have a happy Halloween!
I keep those candies called Smarties( just like glucose tabs but smaller) on me, in my vehicle and at home. They are 6 carbs per roll, so 3 rolls and you have 18 carbs to bring your sugar levels back up, sometimes it takes 3-5 rolls depending on how low it is, they work pretty quick and they are cheaper than glucose tabs, they also don’t melt in warm weather like skittles or starburst etc. always check your sugar!!
Thanks for sharing your helpful tips with us, Chris!
Limit sweets carb count, newer insulin pumps count out carb grams and bolus the grand you have eaten.
When I was young my mom would pay me $0.10 per candy, and it helped me out a lot!
It’s always the little things that make the biggest difference. Thank you for sharing this, Sadie.
How do I get to having good blood sugars instead of lows? I’ve had type 1 diabtes since age of 13 in 1986. And also how can I get help in getting my two insulins without paying a lot of money?
Hi April, this sounds like a great question for your healthcare team, as they can provide you with the best advice to meet your individual insulin needs. I would talk with your insurance provider to learn more about your insulin coverage options.