Halloween is just around the corner and I think it’s time to review some coping strategies for parents of young children, or even older children, and for every household that participates in greeting little witches and goblins. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, keep from bingeing, or keep your children healthy, there are a number of things to do to minimize the damage from this yearly orgy of sweets.
As long as I’ve lived here, we haven’t had trick or treaters in my neighborhood. I loved the holiday in Austin, guessing who was who in their get ups. I learned I could prevent munching in between scary visitors if I handed out candy I didn’t like, but my son hasn’t met a piece of candy he didn’t want categorized at the base of the food pyramid. My own healthy eating intentions would be derailed whenever I’d raid my kids’ stashes during those subsequent weeks when there wasn’t enough chocolate produced in the world to satisfy my cravings. So, what to do?
Kaiser Permanente and the Nutrition and Health committee of the South County Collaborative, which just produced Community Health Day, are conducting a public education campaign to motivate adults to consider a different approach to this holiday. Because South County has a problem with childhood obesity and increasing diagnoses of Type II Diabetes – originally considered “adult onset” and diet and lifestyle related – in children, it’s especially important we pay some attention to the alternatives they suggest.
The average child collects about 5,000 calories worth of candy on Halloween. Whether your approach is to let them eat all the candy they want that night so they’ll be sick of it, or parcel it out in lunches over the next few weeks, we know that all that sugar isn’t good for kids, no matter what their weight. Homemade treats have been discouraged for decades since I was a kid, so it doesn’t make sense to take the time and effort to make up your own nutritious alternative. But, you also don’t have to resort to giving out lame stuff that’s unpopular with kids, like toothbrushes, dental floss or even raisins.
Kaiser’s research has shown that when offered either toys or candy on Halloween, kids are just as likely to choose toys. Why not offer small prizes and toys this year? Some ideas for inexpensive, popular giveaways include:
- Spider rings
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Vampire teeth
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Halloween stickers, pencils
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Temporary tattoos
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Halloween bouncy balls
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Fake slime
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Noisemakers
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Glow sticks
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Decks of cards
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Fake money
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Small bottles of bubbles
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Crayons or glitter glue
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Small cans of Play-Doh
(Those of us moms who remember picking Play-Doh out of the carpet with our finger nails would nix the last suggestion).
An initial response to these suggestions is a resentful swipe that we’re trying to take the fun out of Halloween. After first accusing me of being too “PC,” my brother said he changed his mind, thinking it would be very entertaining to finally have me on the same side as the fundamentalist conservatives who oppose Halloween on religious grounds. As ever, he misses my point. Given the challenges we have here in South County with children’s health and fitness and the focus of the school district’s Wellness Policy, the list is a good start on moving us to think of fun alternatives that still don’t take away from the spirit of the holiday. Our aim is to keep Halloween fun, just make it a little bit healthier without resorting to toothbrushes.
Columnist Dina Campeau is a wife, mother of two teens and a resident of Morgan Hill. Her work for the last seven years has focused on affordable housing and homeless issues in Santa Clara County. Her column is published every Friday. Reach her at dc******@*****er.net.
