With childhood obesity increasing at alarming rates, consider healthy alternatives when trick-or-treaters ring your doorbell. Make Halloween a healthier and more inclusive holiday for children and adolescents with diabetes and other health-related dietary restrictions by offering nutritious, tasty foods and a variety of fun, non-candy alternatives to promote health or get children up and moving to use the extra calories they consume.
 

Healthy Halloween Treats

• Cereal or Granola bars (check sugar content first)
• Pre-packaged snack packs of: raisins, cranberries, apricots, baked pretzels, gold fish crackers, peanuts*, unsalted almonds, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, trail mix
• Packages of low-fat crackers with cheese or peanut* butter filling
• 100 calorie packs of various products
• Beef or turkey jerky
• Fig cookies
• Sugar-free gum or hard candy
• Gummy candies made with real juice
• Individual juice drinks (100% juice)
• Single serve sugar free Jello with fruit
• Single serve applesauce
• Single serve packets of low-fat microwave popcorn

 
*Be aware that some children have peanut allergies so have a non-peanut alternative available.
 

Non-food Halloween Alternative Treats

 Children will also enjoy non-food treats but make sure they are age appropriate.

• Glow sticks
• Pencils
• Pencil toppers and fancy erasers
• Markers or glitter pens
• Stickers, including reflective safety stickers
• Rub-on or stick-on temporary tattoos
• Slime
• Playdoh
• Crayons
• Coloring tablets
• Children's magazines or comic books
• Bottles of bubbles
• Coins (pennies, nickels, dimes)
• Whistles
• Toothbrushes

Alternative Halloween Treats to Promote Activity

 Encourage kids to be more physically active by giving small, inexpensive toys to get them up and moving.

• A bouncy ball
• A jump rope
• Sidewalk chalk for drawing a hopscotch or foursquare game
• A beanbag for hacky sack
• A plastic or foam flier

– Dawn Swidorski, Public Outreach Director, Defeat Diabetes Foundation  www.DefeatDiabetes.org

You Might Also Like...

• EIGHT Ways to Make School Mornings Easier
• Super Food: Guacamole