With Halloween right around the corner, treats and candy are everywhere! Trick-or-treating, Halloween parties and even bowls of candy for customers while shopping leads to an excess of candy in tummies and drawers at home. Try these tips to manage the treats.
- Fill those tummies before Trick-Or-Treating! Make sure everyone eats a good-sized, healthy dinner prior to trick-or-treating. This will hopefully reduce your child’s appetite and consumption of candy that evening.
- No pillow cases! Avoid large bags, pillowcases and oversized pumpkin buckets and instead opt for smaller collection containers such as small or medium sized bags and small pumpkin buckets. This will limit the amount of candy you child collects and brings home while still giving them the excitement of coming home with a full bucket!
- Only one piece of candy per home! This may be a tricky one, but it will minimize the amount of candy collected while stretching the amount of houses and time your child is out trick-or-treating. Tell you child the purpose of this is to be able to tally up how many houses you were able to visit. With collecting multiple pieces of candy from each house, you’ll never be able to keep track of how many houses they visited. You can also turn it into a competition.
- Divide it! Once trick-or-treating is over, spend some time with you child dividing the candy. First, check expiration dates and toss any expired candy. Save enough candy for 1-2 pieces per day for the next few weeks. This way your child can re-live the excitement of trick-or-treating while maintaining portion control!
- Donate it! The remainder of the candy can be donated to homeless shelters or even donated to troops overseas. Follow the link for instructions.
Happy Trick-or-treating!
