Trick-or-Treating Can Be Tricky With Type 1 Diabetes
- goalnutritiondiabe
- Oct 26, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 7
By: SaRene Brooks
Aww………trick-or-treating. That age-old tradition of dressing up and venturing out to gather enormous amounts of candy. It is often preceded by Halloween parties with caramel apples and sugar cookies. This makes managing type 1 diabetes a little more difficult. Here are some tips and tricks to make your
Halloween activities something to enjoy!
#1 Have fun!
Allow your child to enjoy the excitement of dressing up and being with friends. Don’t hyper-focus on the treats and candy. Instead, make it more about the opportunity to be social in doing things such as
attending parties, visiting a pumpkin patch, going through a corn maze and yes, trick-or-treating. This might be a great time to start some new traditions that are not focused on treats that your family can look forward to each Halloween. Set reasonable boundaries and expectations. But most of all…..have fun and allow your child to do the same.
Consider your child’s personality
What would your child choose to do with a big bag of candy. Are they a saver and weeks later still have candy leftover? Do they eat it all as quickly as possible? Or, are they somewhere in the middle where they like to eat their candy but they space it out a bit? Knowing your child’s habits when it comes to treats will help you determine the best way to help them make choices about eating their candy.
What do I do with all the candy?
This is the first thing that comes to mind when a parent is anticipating the arrival of Halloween. How do they intentionally send their child out to gather candy when they have type 1 diabetes? How are they going to keep their child from eating lots of it all at once? Do they now have to monitor their other children’s candy even though they do not have diabetes? There are lots of things to consider.
Here are some ideas you can try:
· Allow them to sort through their candy and pick out only their favorites. They may be willing to pull out some of the candy they really don’t care about. This could be something the entire family does.
· Open up your own little exchange market. Have non-food items that they can trade as they wish for whatever candy they are willing to part company with. This could include things such as colored pens, notebooks, little toys etc.
· Make an agreement ahead of time that they will trade their entire bag of candy for a special toy or other item they have been wanting. You don’t need to spend lots of money but it will probably need to be large enough to make it a fair trade in the eyes of your child.
· Donate all of your children’s candy to a food pantry or other local organization. Let them all go with you to drop it off. Maybe you could top it off with a movie night including a fun dinner and popcorn.
· You can always allow them to keep their candy and help them make choices on when they should eat it. Allow them to be part of setting the guidelines. Some examples include: only one piece each day or only with a specific meal.
Plan ahead for lows
You may find your child is more active with all the Halloween activities, especially trick-or-treating. Plan ahead to avoid the lows that are more likely to accompany increased physical activity. If you struggle with adjusting for lows, be sure to meet with a diabetes educator who can help personalize modifications that are best for your child. Trick-or-treating can be especially difficult for you and your child to recognize lows. There is the distraction of running from door to door and interference of the costume. Pay close attention to physical cues, the CGM if your child has one or taking frequent blood checks.
Carbs in common Halloween candy
SaRene Brooks is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES). She is a mom of 3 boys who are now married which added 3 girls to her family. 2 of her sons live with type 1 diabetes (T1D). She specializes in helping families who are impacted by type 1 to adjust and make it a part of their everyday life , while enjoying the things they love.
She is the wife of an avid outdoorsman and loves spending time with him in the mountains. She is a grandma, creative cook, educator and loves to help individuals and families meet their health and nutrition goals.
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