Healthy Halloween Tips for Kids
It is that time of year again when the kids get dressed up as their favorite princess or superhero. It is also the time of year that some parents dread because of the pile of sugary sweets kids bring home from their trick-or-treating ventures. The good news is that there are ways kids can enjoy the festivities and parents can ensure they won’t be overloaded on sugar. Here are some healthy Halloween tips for kids.
Eat before heading out– In order to prevent the kids from snacking while out trick-or-treating, ensure they eat dinner first or at the very least, a healthy snack.
Limit the trick or treat area– One of the best ways to prevent the kids from coming home with a boatload of candy is to limit where they go. You can set boundaries like a three block radius or only houses on two or three streets. This way, it will moderate the number of treats in their bags.
Practice portion control– Once all the candy has been inspected, it is important to set limits on how much candy they can eat each day. Did you know that just one or two snack size candy bars can easily make up 100 calories? Candy doesn’t have to be consumed right away since most of it has a long shelf life. Limit their candy to one or two pieces a day for the smaller treats. Larger treats can be cut up into three or four pieces.
Combine sweets with fruit– Sweets can fit into your child’s diet in limited amount and can be combined with healthy snacks like fruit. For a snack, they can have one snack size sweet with a banana or an apple. Be sure they eat the fruit first so they won’t be as hungry for the candy.
Brush brush brush– Candies are filled with sugar, which contributes to cavities. It is for this reason that you ensure your child brushes their teeth and flosses after they eat any type of sweets.
These are great tips. We always took our son to our local mall to go trick or treating. We always ate a big dinner before going.
call me worst parent of the year but I enjoy trick or treating and going all out and finding all of the candy we can. of course we do eat it in moderation and brush our teeth after we are done but we enjoy going from one area to the next. It’s the highlight of the year for Bella. she all ready has her custom picked out and she’s going to be joy for Halloween. We do eat dinner before we leave or we will just go to a Pizza place in town or Mcdonalds that night. I know mom of the year right here lol
Great tips thank you for sharing.My kids are already talking about trick or treating,the fruit idea is really good.
We get as much candy as possible to cover the parent candy tax.
Tooth brushing is so important after Halloween! We don’t want cavities.
Those are great tips for the trick or treaters. Believe it or not, my kids don’t like candy that much!
Portion control is a good one. I have one child that if you turn your back there’s going to be 50 wrappers on the floor in front of her. 😉
Kids don’t need half of what they get. I always limited the amount of places we went so it was never an issue.
It’s so much fun to go trick or treating! There are so many festivals leading up to Halloween.
Great tips! My girls like to share their candy with all the people who didn’t go, so they don’t end up with too much. We tend to toss whatever is left after a month.
Thanks for the tips. I agree that it is always important to tell the kids to brush their teeth after eating all those sweet treats.
Great tips! My kids are only ever allowed 2 pieces a candy from their treat-or-treat a day … Our candy tends to last so long I throw most of it out!
These are great tips. My kids and I usually have a long talk before going trick or treating. Once we’re back home, they know that they will only be allowed three pieces of candies a day.
Separating sweets from fruit is a great way to limit how much candy kids eat. It’s important to have moderation.
These are great tips. We always had a nice big dinner so the kids would not be hungry when they went out. We always had a specific area we would go out to every year.
We love Halloween at our house. The kids are always so excited to go out trick or treating. We always have a set route we take.
We try to stretch the candy out as long as possible. A piece or maybe 2 each day and no more than that keeps away the sugar rush and tummy aches. Mom also sneaks a couple pieces, lol.
This is great advice. It’s definitely important to discuss these things before Halloween. They can still have fun but our bodies have limits!