Halloween is right around the corner, and we know what it’s like to navigate such a candy-heavy day with diabetes on board. So we connected with our Fiffles to see how they handle diabetes and the Halloween fun. From “switch witch” to saving for lows, here are some tips and tricks on “hacking Halloween” from our community:
“We still go trick-or-treating, at the end she and her brother pick out 10 pieces of candy to keep. I save some for lows, and then the rest is left for the Tooth Fairy to collect. The Tooth Fairy takes the candy and leaves them a small gift for all their hard work collecting all that candy. And then the following week my coworkers are happy!”
“We swap out our 5 year old son’s candy with the switch witch for a toy. He’s more than happy to leave his trick or treat bucket for the switch witch and has a surprise in the morning.”
“Assign small monetary values to each candy (ie. If mom’s favorite candy are M&Ms, she pays 25c for each … but if dad’s favorite are skittles, those are worth more to him). Then have some haggling and nominal $$ exchange for the bounty. Makes it fun and a learning opportunity. I used to love negotiating with family members!”
“When I was a kid, my mom gave me five cents for each piece of candy after she read a story about another family that did that in one of my second grade textbooks.”
“My daughter trick or treats, picks a few pieces of her favorite candies to keep, and I stash the super sugary ones for low treaters. The rest she puts by the front door and The Switch Witch comes overnight and takes her candy and leaves a small non-food gift in its place.”
“We’ve been doing the switch witch ever since my daughter’s diagnosis. She has Celiac and type one. She keeps some of her favourites and swaps the rest out. She really looks forward to this and so does my non type one son.”
“We do a candy swap – 25 cents per piece. I get to keep the candy for low snacks, he gets some money for whatever Lego set he loves right now.”
“We do go trick-or-treat and everyone gets to keep a small stack of favorites. Next day, we take all the rest to our dentist who buys back candy. [We’ve] done this for years, and love it. Works for all my three kids. Bonus is that the dentist donates the candy to different organizations, [including] sending it to our troops.”
“Our first year we let him trade his candy in for a toy. Now we save it for 1-2 pieces after dinner and to treat lows as needed. There are some good guides I found with the carbs for the more popular brands of candy.”
“We normally carry the sheet with the carb counts on it so she can enjoy a piece or two just like the other kids. (Saves trying to find it in an app.)”
“I save a pic with carb counts on my phone so I can look up any candy I don’t have a carb count memorized for. I always nudge my daughter toward a costume that will allow me to access her pump, so that I can dose for any candy she eats. My daughter always goes to multiple trick-or-treat events over the month of October and gets way more candy by the end of the month than any one person needs, T1D or not. On November 1st she gets to fill a medium sized storage container with what she wants to keep. The rest is left out for the Candy Fairy, who exchanges it for a toy. I like the Candy Fairy better than the commercialized Switch Witch because she’s not tied to any one holiday. She comes back on Easter after an abundance of candy has been acquired from Easter egg hunts.”
Happy Halloween to our CWD friends and family!
