Teal Pumpkins for an Allergy Friendly Halloween

Author: Shannon Miller Lifestyle

With Halloween just around the corner, have you given thought to what you will be giving out this year?

Halloween is meant to be a scary holiday, but for children with food allergies it can be life-threatening. Finding treats that won’t potentially trigger allergic reactions can be tricky. That’s why Food Allergy Research & Education, or FARE, is trying to start a new tradition in the spirit of inclusion and safety.

The Teal Pumpkin Project encourages people to paint a pumpkin teal, the color of food allergy awareness, to indicate that their home is safe for trick-or-treaters with food allergies and offering non-food treats such as small toys or candy that is nut free and processed in a nut free facility.

According to FARE, food allergies affect 1 in every 13 children or roughly two in every classroom. That’s a lot of kids who might feel left out of the festivities. If you would like to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project this Halloween, you can visit FARE’s website to download a free poster and get ideas of non-food treats to hand out to kids with food allergies.

In addition to handing out non food items, Liz from Team SML has come up with a list of treats that are nut free and processed in a nut free facility stating that “With my daughter’s preschool doing a Trunk or Treat event, I found it difficult to find safe options to bring for the event. With so many preschools and daycares becoming completely nut free, its important to respect and care for those children who may have life-threatening reactions to nuts but still make Halloween a safe and fun experience for them. I hope that parents understand the difficulty that parents with children who have nut allergies face on holidays like Halloween and help to make their experience a little bit easier.”

Consider picking up some of these nut free candy options in case you have some trick or treaters with allergies this year:

• Annie’s Organic Fruit Snacks
• Haribo Gummy Candies
• Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops
• Red Vines
• Twizzlers
• Jolly Ranchers
• Dum Dum Lollipops
• Air Heads
• Mike and Ike’s
• Skittles
• Starburst
• Topp’s Brand Ring Pops and Push Pops
• Pop Rocks

Most chocolate candy is NOT safe for people with nut allergies since they are typically processed in facilities that also process nuts. Vermont Nut Free Chocolate,  Simply Nut Free Chocolates, and Huey’s Nut Free Chocolate are a few companies that make nut free chocolate if you are looking for that.