Blog

FAACT's Halloween Safety Tips

October 29, 2017  |  Allergy, Allergy-awareness, Anaphylaxis, Awareness, Blog, Education, Epinephrine, Food-allergies, Food-allergy, Food-allergy-blog, Halloween, Know-the-faacts, Tips
FAACT's Halloween Safety Tips

by Cindy Gordon, FAACT’s Communication Manager

Halloween can easily become a daunting holiday to celebrate for food allergy families. But you can change this! With a little education and prep work your children with food allergies can enjoy a safe and inclusive holiday!

Quick Guide: Here are a few basic tips to consider for Halloween!

  1. Bring epinephrine with you while trick-or-treating. (NEVER leave home without it!)
  2. Avoid eating treats while trick-or-treating.
  3. Inspect all candy and check labels, when you arrive home.
  4. Heading to a party? Bring your own safe, allergen-free treats.
  5. Hand out NON-FOOD treats at your house. Be the example for your neighborhood!

Looking Deeper: Expanding further for more in-depth Halloween Food Allergy Safety Tips:

  1. Consider wearing gloves on your Halloween route to help avoid any contact with allergens.
  2. Always be aware of your surroundings and what the other kids may be consuming around you and your child.
  3. For younger kids, you can make your food allergy safe rules into a song! Make a fun, simple and catchy phrase and sing it with your kids.

But MOM, I am hungry! That is something you might hear on your trick-or-treat route. You can easily avoid this. Be sure to fix your child a nutritious and filling meal before you leave. That way your child’s belly will be full and they will be less likely to be tempted to try the candy before you have reached home and can read the labels.  Bring treats with you. This is a great plan to bring a favorite and safe food item along the way for your kids to snack on!

Want to spread awareness about Food Allergies?

Spreading awareness and educating your neighbor might be easier than you think.

  • Visit your local Walmart and send us your selfie with FAACT’s Teal Ghost in the non-food Halloween treat aisles!
  • If you have a neighborhood Facebook Group or Home Owners Association, consider posting about Food Allergies in the groups. Let your neighbors know of the common allergies and encourage non-food items so all children can be included.
  • Have a Teal Pumpkin Painting Party! Invite your neighbors over to paint teal pumpkins. You can talk with your neighbors about food allergies and what the Teal Pumpkin represents.
  • You can hand out FREE, printable FAACT resources to families of your trick-or-treaters as they come to the door.

The options are endless of what you can do. With a few simple tips and ideas, you can start NOW to plan how you will safely handle Halloween! For more tips about handling the holidays with food allergies and FREE food allergy printable, you can visit FAACT’s Halloween section.

FAACT wishes you all a safe and allergen-friendly Halloween!

About the Author:
Cindy Gordon is FAACT’s Communication Manager. She is also the founder of Vegetarian Mamma, a site that shares gluten-free and allergy-friendly recipes, products and travel experiences, as well as an author to the cookbooks The Gluten Free Fork and The Dessert Fork, both available on Amazon.