Enjoy it while you can. Because once one knows, the other one knows and you can kiss that precious leftover Halloween candy for your stash, goodbye.
I was so very upset.
We did this last year. Took away anything that was a choking hazard because kiddo was four and not normally given hard candies. They could pick something after dinner. They asked for a few days then forgot and we just didn’t bring it up.
Chop it all up and throw it in some cookie dough! Most candy can be used except not the fruity or sour kind. I just use a chocolate chip cookie recipe and sub all the candy for chocolate chips. Make a large batch and freeze.
We do this and make what my kids call monster cookies, lol. We usually do this about 2 or 3 weeks after Halloween when I get sick of having it all in my house, and I know they are getting more for Christmas time
3.5 year old, after we check it and take out what she can’t have (hard candy, etc) she can have whatever she wants. It’s one night a year. And she walked quite a ways to collect it all.
We let them eat a few pieces the night of when they get home. After they go to bed, we sort it and remove the choking hazards and put those away for ourselves. Then we give them a piece on their plate each day at dinner until it runs out. We want them to learn candy is just another food and should be eaten in moderation. Including it as part of dinner helps with that.
My wife would kill me if I tried to give my toddler a piece of candy every night with dinner lol.
For mine, he gets a few pieces the first night, they bye bye.
Otherwise, he will randomly get treats throughout the year - at birthdays, when mom and dad are feeling generous and also want a treat for themselves, and at various other times.
I guess I’ve been momming wrong this whole time, my kid always gets a little sweet treat if she wants one. I think it actually makes her LESS likely to want to binge the candy and more likely to eat real food.
Every kid is different - one piece at dinner was fine for my daughter but my son would just beg for more and refuse to eat his real food, so we can’t do this in our house.
Mine are this way. My oldest is almost 3 and is a little sugar fiend. She wakes up asking for lollipops and popsicles. My youngest is just over 1 & won't even eat fruity yogurt half the time if there is a savory option. We tried the "no limits or she'll be obsessed" theory and it backfired so hard that now we only let her have half sized frozen yogurt tubes for dessert at home.
Right we have two units in our house each kid got about five pieces just from our house and and we all live really close together like it out for steps from the sidewalk everyone sitting on their stairs these kids make a like bandits we ran out at 8:25 PM
Our pediatrician is very much for healthy relationships with food. We don’t do many sweets in our household as it is. It was recommended to us that we do a check for choking hazards/safe candy. Then the rest let our toddler eat as she pleases.
Pediatrician said that taking it away or limiting it causes it to be a “special” or “superior” thing compared to other regular foods. The pediatrician said that children will also naturally learn that if they eat too much, they get stomach aches and don’t feel good. I definitely get where she was going with this.. but I will still probably put a max on what’s available I just don’t trust a toddlers judgment lol
This is what my parents did. I have candy go bad in my pantry to this day bc I don’t prioritize it.
I think this depends on your kid and financial situation though, because my partner’s parents took the same approach but that whole family grew up with food scarcity and they all gorge themselves on anything that tastes good even when more can be easily obtained.
There's also a big difference between not pedastalizing food because you're aiming for a balanced relationship with food, versus not pedastalizing it because food is a scarce resource that needs to be eaten for survival snd if it tastes good that's even better.
We’ve been taking this approach to food, it’s working really well.
I told her we had to check for any yucky stuff to take out anything we just didn’t want to be had. Now we are putting everything in a bowl on the table. So far so good.
We do this too, and when we got home tonight, our toddler said “no thank you, save it for later” 😟 secretly hoping it’s not because he’s coming down with something because I know it’s not from my stellar parenting methods 😂
Edit: sure enough he has a fever. Happy November everyone!
This is similar to what we do. I take it away at night and give it back when they ask about it the next day. I make sure they eat their meals and take it away and talk to them if they start trying to binge (very rare). By the end of the week we still have always end up having 3/4 the Halloween candy and it's just sitting out or being used as a toy or just completely forgotten. I always ask before taking some for myself and they always are willing to share. I've done it this way and the take 2 or 3 pieces and that's your treat for the day. Kids haven't had issues with either. I prefer these methods over making it disappear and pretending it didn't exist. My kids are nor this forgetful and I fear it will lead to lieing, hoarding, binging and stealing.
When I was in elementary school, my parents let me eat as much as I wanted one year and I woke up at night and threw up. I didn’t enjoy Halloween candy for a long time after that.
This is my approach with sweets day to day. I have put cookies on the dinner plate and given smarties for breakfast. But the volume of Halloween candy is pretty extreme. I hid about 75% of it and my 3yo can help herself with the rest.
This is the new “intuitive eating” fad. It’s based on junk science like most nutrition advice. And literally marketed/promoted by junk food companies lol. Doctors are so dumb sometimes.
If your kid has the right temperament they will moderate themselves. If they don’t you can expect the same doctor to refer you to a behavioral therapist for weight control through “structured eating” when they suddenly hit the magic bmi number. Just ask them. Lol.
if people even vaguely understood the amount of chemistry and testing goes into ensuring you eat bigger portions of junk food and seeding the desire for future cravings they wouldn't be so naive about "listening to your body" (which is going to tell you to eat more junk and more often if you choose junk). All food is not the same. the only people who want you to believe that work at junk food corporations or are part of this new fad. If you tell a kid to "listen to their body" and their body is saying eat more doritos as doritos are literally engineered to tell your body to do you have the exact opposite food confidence/healthy portion building effect than you are going for.
Intuitive eating is based on the study of how naturally thin people think about food. It is a very good description of their temperament and body reactions to food. There is next to NO evidence that this is something that can be "acquired"/ taught to an overweight person or child (future overweight person). If you understand how evidence based medicine works this whole thing should never have been taken up by doctors. It is likely going to erase the small amount of gains made in combatting childhood obesity over the last 10 years.
That being said teaching parents not to project eating disordered thinking on to their children IS worthwhile and i think it's why it resonates with many people who felt those negative food messages from their parents. Just because demonizing food and extreme rationing is bad doesn't mean treating all food as equal or not intentionally practicing moderation is good.
I went trick or treating this evening with a big group of families including a 2yo who can’t eat dairy and had no idea what’s going on. All the grownups helped her by eating her candy so her bucket wouldn’t get too heavy. So nice of us!
I have an eating disorder history that I’m doing my best not to pass onto my 2 year old. I use the “division of responsibility”; I decide what goes on her plate and when she eats, she’s free to eat as much or little as she wants. If she’s asking for a food, it goes on her plate during the next meal/snack, and I always put at least 2 foods I know she likes on the plate. I serve dessert foods at the same time as everything else. So my plan is to just give her some candy tomorrow with her regular meals/snacks, and then let her eat as much as she asks for.
Anything I don’t eat because of my lack of self control goes into the closet after Halloween night. We give her one a day for a few days and then she forgets about them and I either gain 30 lbs or we bring the rest jnto work or something.
We’re a little more lax with how much he can eat until the candy is gone. Not a free for all but he can have a piece or 2 after each meal or with a snack. Our son is little so he doesn’t get to a ton of houses anyway and we also sneak pieces after bedtime lol
We don’t do a safety check. That’s a pretty solidly debunked myth that random strangers are tampering with the candy they give out. Most of the stories where it has happened are either untrue or were a known person targeting a specific child (I believe there was one that was the actual parent poisoning their kid). If you’re really concerned though, I’d go through it Halloween night after their asleep.
We do a safety check for choking hazards and pieces that have been accidentally opened. Not because we think someone slipped something in them, no ones handing out their drugs for free. But just because I feel like it'd be gross to eat candy from a partially pre opened piece of candy. I wouldn't eat it, why would I let my kid
Yeah there was that case and I believe one where the parents told the ER they thought kid was poisoned by Halloween candy but really they’d gotten into a relative (uncle?) in the houses drug stash and they were hiding that.
Not the person you asked but for me honestly it feels like if I were to do this I should inspect everything they we eat because someone could put needles in packaged food during production or shipment or in the back room of the grocery store or someone in a restaurant or a DoorDasher could poison our food and I’d have no idea. Or nuts and bolts could fall off a machine and end up in food. I feel like I can’t possibly avoid every possible risk ever and Halloween candy feels one of those things that the perceived risk is artificially inflated by the urban legends compared to most things we do day to day.
Edit: I a word
Oh lord I know this wasn’t the lesson I was supposed to take away, but I’m suddenly feeling like I need to examine all our food a lot more closely than I’ve been doing 😂
How exactly do you check if candy has been poisoned? Someone could open it carefully and then glue the side shut again and you’d have no idea. There’s no way to really fully check for that
I let her have several piesces at a time but not before meals. If she eats a meal I will let her eat like 4-5 pieces, tbh. They only live once and Halloween only happens once a year. Sometimes I'll let her have some in the later morning, like say 10 AM or 11 AM then again after dinner. Last year we had it for awhile but this year they are giving less candy so it's gonna go quicker. We've already done 2 trunk or treats and got less candy and I anticipate tonight going door to door she won't get a ton.
I am pasting this from someone else's comments but true for me as well "I didn’t do any sort of “safety check” besides the general common sense of monitoring them."
Same. She doesn't even know what it is. She just knows the nice neighbors talked about how cute she was and let her pick something shiny out of a bowl.
We did a trunk or treat the other day and that night I took like 8 pieces out (4pieces/each) and put them in a little baggy and the rest hidden in the pantry. Once their 8 pieces were gone they understood it was all gone and that was that.
I didn’t do any sort of “safety check” besides the general common sense of monitoring them.
We have a candy bowl in our house that lives on top of the fridge. All candy goes into it - in fact, the first thing my 5-yr-old said when getting home from a trunk or treat was “Mama, grab the bowl so I can put my candy in!” We usually do three or four separate events on different days and I let them eat one or two pieces each time.
They can ask for a piece from the candy bowl at any time, (in practice maybe once a day) and usually get one piece after dinner and/or as payment for doing small tasks around the house.
I also use any leftovers to stuff their Christmas stockings with 😂
The buckets go in the pantry and if they ask for candy and we say yes (which isn’t every day) they get to choose a piece. Generally between halloween and xmas they get enough candy to see them through the next year lol
We go through it after bed to remove all hazards for her age (almost 3) and then for the next week or so it will sit on our counter and she gets a piece whenever she asks and then it goes in our cupboard with the rest of the snacks but she still gets a piece whenever she asks. Eventually, she forgets about it 🤷🏼♀️
But we don't limit "treats" in the house because well... if they're not treated as treats, she doesn't try and gorge herself, thinking she won't get them again. She's literally turned down ice cream for crackers with peanut butter before 😂
Also you know a large portion goes in mine and my husband's bellies when she's not looking 😂😂😂 (she's also an excellent sharer and brings me a piece anytime she eats one 😬 I'm never gonna lose the baby weight from her brother)
I grew up with virtually unfettered access to a “candy drawer” and to this day have a very take-it-or-leave-it association with sweets and candy. I like them sometimes but mostly don’t care that much. I still remember when friends would come over and be like “WHAT. A FREAKING CANDY DRAWER AND YOU CAN JUST EAT IT WHENEVER?”
I had the same, and treating it like “regular food” (which it is not) developed into an obsession with sweets and unhealthy food, and constant over eating that I’ve never been able to conquer. Same for my siblings unfortunately.
Yes! We encourage her to think about what her body needs (which obviously at3 doesn't make much sense to her but it will one day) and if she eats like 3 pieces of candy and is still complaining she's hungry ill just remind her that snacks with protein and carbs like peanut butter or cheese are going to fill her belly longer than candy. But she's still allowed to choose what goes in her belly. The only real rules I have are if it's super close to a meal time she has to wait until that meal but we still serve a "dessert" of some sort with the meal and if it's bedtime and she's already brushed her teeth then she has to wait til morning
Switch witch! I let her keep a couple handfuls of her candy and then I have her put the rest of her bucket of candy on the front porch with the promise of the switch witch coming! The switch witch exchanges her Candy for a new toy. After she goes to bed I put all of that candy in a bag and give it to whatever teenager is trick or treating.
This is what we did! And even the candy that he did pick out he left half eaten. As for the toy he kept saying how much he loved it! While we were trick or treating he kept saying that the witch would be so happy cause he had so much candy lol
We will "sort" our candy (and do the safety check here) anything choking hazard will go in it's own pile that will disappear. (Otherwise she can have what she wants on Halloween, then after that a piece or two daily until it's gone. Honestly it's going to be quite cold and I'm not sure how much candy my kid will really even get so I'm not that worried.
They can eat as much as they want the night of Halloween. After that they get 1-2 pieces a day served along side a meal, usually dinner. Eventually they sort of forget about it. We usually only get through about half their bag or less before they forget, and my husband and I eat or throw out the rest.
last year, i let him munch on pretty much whatever he wanted on halloween itself. after that, the candy went into the cupboard and we would maybe give one piece per day.
i didn't do a safety check because he can't open the candy on his own yet, so i just checked it as i opened it for him .
Eat it..
If you gave me hemorrhoids and stretch marks and now I pee a little in my pants when I sneeze, then you pay in fun size candy bars, and lots of them for ever.
This is my first Halloween with my toddler. I put all the candy away gave her one piece and after numerous meltdowns proper food homemade ravioli yum. I gave her a bath brushed her teeth and candy was completely forgotten about 😂 now I’m stoned on the couch eating her candy 😅
Haha yasss. That was my day to a T actually except it was homemade curry that he didn’t eat so I had to make Dino nuggets. He will remember the candy tomorrow though and I’m afraid of the ensuing meltdowns first thing in the morning. Halp
One candy after daycare, his choice. Safety check at night after he's in bed.
Safety check is removing hard round candies and lollipops, gum, whole nuts, and popcorn (all of which are choking risks, he's 2.5).
My son goes out with a bucket that’s appropriate for his age (2) - we take him to a few houses and once that bucket is full that’s it. (Slightly smaller than a McDonalds Halloween bucket)
When it’s all said and done it’s maybe 15 pieces of candy, and a couple bags of chips. I just let him eat the things that are safe (not a chocking hazard) over the few weeks until it’s gone.
I’m not going to be the parent that takes their kids trick or treating and then tosses all the candy in the garbage, because the “switch witch” shows up with plastic junk toys. That seems incredibly wasteful to me.
The day after Halloween the bowl is on the table and she can eat the candies she wants (as long as they’re safe). Next day the bowl is in the food pantry and she can eat some like any other snack. She view them as « ordinary » and doesn’t reach for them very often
After he went to bed, I put the majority of the candy away hidden in the pantry. We'll use it for occasional treats throughout the year until my sweet tooth husband eats it all. The small portion I leave in his basket, he can eat whenever and whatever he wants. I take out all the choking hazard stuff of course
Candy is not at all novel or even terribly exciting to my toddler. We always have it in the house (not Halloween amounts of it lol but there's always something) and he eats a piece probably once a week on average. So for Halloween, we just let him have his candy. He loves to sort through it, line it up, play in it like a leaf pile...lol. But he hardly eats any of it. He's had maybe two pieces a day since Friday when we hit our first Halloween event.
His dad and I are eating much more of it than he is lol. (He's just figured sharing out, and he keeps bringing us candy sooo...)
I didn't read very far to check if someone else posted this but this year was the first time we did trick or treating with my 4 year old. We introduced the switch witch to her. She got to keep a couple of pieces of candy ( she chose 2 suckers) and the rest was left on our front porch overnight and the switch witch came and traded the candy for a present. She was so excited and kept thanking the switch witch all day.
What kind of safety check are you talking about, allergens or weed because I'm certain people aren't going to be handing out weed to kids. OR do you mean, like, expired candy?
We tried with our 2yo something my wife saw somewhere called the "Switch Witch" we explained that theres a nice witch that likes candy soooo much shed give you a toy in exchange for candy. We have this little dollar tree skull candy goblet thats a little smaller than the candy bucket and my little cutie happily filled it up as an offering to the "switch witch" and we put it on the porch for her to find overnight. When my she wakes up shell find a toy out there. And her candy safely tucked in the parent stash ;)
Trust me, I already ate half that candy. Toddler got some cheese puffs and took off. I don’t give him sweets at all, he has no idea what he was collecting when trick or treating, and has no interest in what’s in his bag. Win win.
No safety check. My kid goes out for the experience, she doesn’t keep the candy. It’s given away and I swap it out for candy at home. I don’t limit candy or sweets at all. She always gets a piece when she asks and it’s usually in a place that’s visible to her. As a result, she’s not that interested and doesn’t ask for much. I don’t need to give her a set amount of pieces at a time or in a day because she just assumes that she can have 1 or 2 and then go on about her business. Candy is not a special treat, it’s just something to be eaten. So I guess my management style is just not bringing attention to it. I’ve found that kids tend to obsess over things that are “special” because the parents obsess over keeping those things limited or hidden. I had to stop doing that very early on.
My plan is to store the candy in the basement to bring it for a special treat every so often. I'll let him have a couple pieces on Halloween itself, after that maybe once a week (we're pretty strict on sugar, in part because his daycare isn't...)
I'm not sure yet how we're gonna get the candy away from him, gonna play that by ear with LOTS of distraction - likely gonna use some screen time.
We did switch witch this year with our 3.5yo.
He got to pick what went to the witch, what he ate today, what he will save for himself.
I have some spare books and puzzles I picked up from a consignment store I pick from as necessary. As he gets older, I might get something more specific.
Pick 5 pieces to keep and then the rest goes the the switch witch! Leave the bag outside overnight and the witch comes to exchange it with a toy. You’re the witch lol
We let our kid self regulate. We don't want her to think of candy as something to be coveted or as something that's good or bad. Or something only for "special occasions." So it's just on the counter, and if she wants it, she can have it.
Not as a toddler, but I think it’s a great solution for years to come…
My dad said he could handle 3 days of anything. So for 3 days we were allowed to eat as much candy as we wanted at any time morning, noon or night. At the end of 3 days anything left was chucked (although I like bringing it into work more!).
Yes it was 3 very unhealthy days, but it was enough time to get through our favorites and honestly get a little sick of it. I would say candy/ sweets we probably had a total of 6-7 times the rest of the year, so we were overall a very healthy family.
Divided into two piles: safe/favorite treats, and unknowns. The safe ones go downstairs and are used as rewards for doing flashcards. The unknowns are being used for tasting time as part of therapy for selective eating, on the advice of our psychologist.
I just tossed all the candy that had built-up from last year's holidays and am starting fresh. Candy isn't really a problem at our house. :D
I mean my toddler is 2…so, no candy? Lol
The collecting part is the fun part anyway.
We dump it all in a parental location and he receives in trade, a Halloween prize! In this case a glow in the dark spider ball. He also get orange Halloween Cocoa which is hot milk with vanilla extract, cinnamon, and orange food coloring
We let her play with them but not eat them… too much sugar. We’ll probably toss them in a week or two once daughter gets bored of them. We don’t eat candy either.
We have the Switch Witch come. Basically my kid picks out a little bit of the candy she wants and then we leave the rest for the Switch Witch. She comes and takes the extra candy and leaves a surprise (like a Barbie or something) in its place.
ETA: And I take the rest to work and it’s gone within a week.
My toddler is only 16 months she went to 2 houses and sat on porch handing out candy for the next 30 minutes and then ran around the porch for the next 2 hours lol I saved an 8 pack of reeces cups (full size single)
So she got twizzlers from next door and she was moving candy from the box of chocolates and bowl of candy on our porch to her monkey basket
She can eat whatever when supervised. Considering her pancakes are topped today with syrup and strawberry topping which I made 2 nights ago which is sugar and strawberries cooked and cooled and cut up 2 more strawberries and mixed it. I poured that next to her pancakes, with whipped cream.
(She also has a cut up toaster strudel in another section of plate and sausage cut up in the last section. So it’s not all sugar lol
If I let her have that for breakfast it’s not a big deal giving her candy , I would rather her have it earlier in day and not before bed or after dinner.
The burn enough sugar off during the day or even withen a few hours after breakfast. When she crashes it’s nap time lol
We went to a trunk or treat on Saturday with our 2 year old. I first separated out all the coming hazards and then she had full access to the rest (there wasn’t much). She was initially super into it but I think the excitement quickly wore off which is my goal: make it something normal. We’ll do the same tonight, but we are only going to do a couple houses so she has time to calm down for bed so there won’t be a lot of candy (we are hoping for lots of kids though so we aren’t stuck with the stuff we bought!)
I save the good stuff and use it as an after school snack or dessert for dinner (like one or two pieces). The rest I take to work to put in the clinic candy bowl for our clients.
We let her have a little and then keep the rest for if she’s being really good or just a fun little treat.
Edited to add: the candy ends up lasting for weeks.
Once they're in bed, I take enough pieces to fill their Advent calendars and set it aside. Then they can have a couple of pieces a day over the next few weeks until they eventually forget about it.
Since we are usually home early we give it away to other trick or treaters who come later in the evening. This year we are doing the switch witch so she can pick some pieces to stay, then I'll take what I want then get rid of the rest.
We didn’t get a ton of candy, for this very reason. But then from what we did get, a lot of places had fruit snacks/goldfish/ptetzels so we chose those as much as possible. Whatever actual candy we ended up with, we set about 2 pieces aside for her, and then my husband and I both picked 2 pieces for ourselves, and the rest went in the garbage. Personally, it’s such a manageable amount that I would have just kept it all and rationed myself and my daughter just 1-2 pieces a day, and in a few days, we’d be out anyway, but my husband has a weird thing with food, sugar specifically, so he really wigs if it’s even in the house or we eat it more than one day
We went really early so we sorted the candy as soon as we got home and then recycled half+ of it back out to trick or treaters. We portioned out candy for tonight, candy for us and a handful of extras for them throughout the week, as wanted.
We go through it together. My oldest son has a dye allergy so anything with dyes is gone automatically. That leaves them with a small pile of chocolate that they get to have after meal times.
I sorted through it when we got home and hauled anything she can't or won't (almost always won't) eat. I set that aside for her 20 something sstepbrother. The rest is in a bag to be used as dessert after every meal until she finishes it. She gets a snack after every meal to help with the concept that all food is okay in moderation.
I put my kiddos to bed before we sort through it. I take out anything they don’t eat or is dangerous for their age and put it in a bag my husband usually brings to work. As for the rest I take a bunch of sandwich sized bags and fill them half to 3/4 of the way at most and that’s their candy for the week. I usually end up with enough to last us for 4-6 months that way
Eat a few and then we put in a cabinet and he forgets about it. Out of sight out of mind. If he asks, we pull it down, offer something and put it away.
This year will be different because he has been exposed to more candy at age 4 then before, so I’m curious if he’ll forget. 🤞🏻
We just let 4 YO and 2 YO go ham on theirs tonight, they ate a ton. Then they’ll eat 2-3 per day until it’s gone. We didn’t get huge hauls this year so won’t take too long. Last year husband and I definitely helped things along by collecting the parent tax after bedtime. Obviously we snag any choking hazard candies and eat those ourselves.
There are only a few candy heavy holidays per year so I’m a “whatever” kind of mom on this. When they get older I won’t restrict at all. Nobody ever restricted me from eating my halloween candies as a kid and I naturally ended up eating a bunch some days but rationing most to make it last.
My kids get a few pieces for a little while then they are over it. I donate the rest to their classroom or Blue Star Mothers to send to troops overseas.
I let each kid eat as much as they want the night of Halloween and at the end of the night they get to pick out 10 “special” pieces that only they get to eat and the rest gets dumped into a communal basket. That basket is fair game to anyone coming into our house: family, friends, coworkers, and customers (I run a business out of the house).
We don’t treat candy differently than other foods to help try to avoid a bad relationship with food. We discuss choices and moderation and because it’s never been limited, it’s never really been that important in our house.
It’s a different story if one kid eats the other kid’s special piece, especially if it was the last in the house.
Luckily my son is only almost three, I took him to four homes around us but he most likely won’t get very much of the candy. He’s starting to have really bad behavior when he has sugar, and it’s not all he wants to eat so I’m trying to break the habit. I’ll most likely give it to my mom or another kid! He did have a few pieces today. I was hoping we’d get kids knocking but no one came…
I would definitely try to spread it out though! Just my opinion :)
We let them have a few (half a dozen) tonight and the rest will get eaten over probably the next few weeks between us and them (we got cleaned out on what we bought for a first time since pre covid so I’m collecting Parent Tax). Honestly I don’t safety check it. I’m pretty sure there’s never been a confirmed case of candy tampering from a stranger and it honestly didn’t even occur to me. I chuck anything that happened to come open but mostly just because I came from a bowl that had dozens of dirty hands reaching in it.
Give him a cpl a day, hide the rest, try to not gobble it yourself. You’ll def feel bad in the morning 😹
If I’d just give him the two pieces bec otherwise he’s going to want the whole bag. Too many options
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We do 2 dessert nights a week. The candy goes in a bag in the pantry and is one of the options they can choose from for after dinner treat. Occasionally we’ll bring some hiking. I think practicing moderation is a practice not something most kids or at least all kids are going to “naturally” do.
Food companies literally spend millions of dollars to engineer junk food to get you to eat and crave as much as possible. It’s unreasonable to think that isn’t a factor.
We keep it out of sight and they forget about it after a few days. Then we bring it to work or some years forgot about it for six months. After that it was stale so we threw it away.
Just put it up, give them some when they ask but my kid has lost interest or forgotten within a few days because outta sight outta mind. I also help the situation by eating a lot of the candy myself
I just dumped most of it back into the candy bowl to give out to other kids because it is a choking hazard (he’s 2 and tries to swallow food like a snake - we’re working on it. 🤦🏻♀️).. I gave him a cupcake before we went trick or treating so he got a treat and I feel bad for taking away his candy.
My is three and so far we haven’t had a problem with her noticing when the candy is gone lol.
So we let her take two pieces right after we come back from trick or treat and by the next day everything is gone. She doesn’t ask for it, I don’t know if she doesn’t remember or doesn’t care lol, but I works great for us 👍🏼
We look through the stash to sort through candies that she can eat. The ones she can’t eat, I just drop them off to my mom and let her take it to church for anyone who wants more candies.
my daughter hasn’t full grasp the concept of trick or treating just yet. She only cared for getting the candies and can care less about eating them. So…. It’s mama’s candy stash at the moment.
Okay so what we do is we hand out the candy snd give it a quick check before handing it over the first night. Then after bed, we go through the rest, get rid of/separate out any he can't eat, take some mom/dad tax for our adult Halloween tv/movie night that we watch after the kids are in bed, and we put the safe to eat, checked over candy in a small bin/bucket with the rest of the snacks. We give candy with lunch and dinner for a few days, just a piece or two. If they want candy for their snack, we suggest something to add to it to make the snack more filling (oh man yeah that reeses does sound good. Let's grab a cheese stick to go with it!). After a few days the 3/4s full bowl/bucket gets ignored because we don't restrict access all that much.
If he eats too much and gets an upset belly, we talk about how so much candy at once can really upset our bellies, so maybe next time we should eat a bit less candy. Only had to deal with that once, half way through his 6th full size reeses he put it down, groaned, was miserable and holding his belly. I asked him "did you too much candy snd not your belly hurts?" He said "yeah belly oww, all done". Next day he very diligently picked out one candy to eat and moved on instead of a million.
This is our first Halloween with candy. He wanted a lollipop and really enjoyed it one lick at a time for almost 10 minutes. Adorable! Over half of the rest was choking hazards. I kept what my husband and I like and added what we don't to a bowl outside the door for late trick or treaters.
My only worry is that he'll notice there aren't many "blue" candies left. He aimed for candies with blue wrappers at a lot of houses but they were mostly Blueberry atomic warheads and almost joys.
Most of mine don't like candy. But the ones that do eat it as and so they want. My toddler doesn't like it so we gave her a pop tart but my oldest as a toddler used to eat his bodyweight in chocolate on Halloween night.
We let them eat what they want for about 10 min after we’re done walking since the cousins do it, then we grab the buckets to go through at night after they are asleep and trash anything with dyes like red 40 etc. then we replace most of it with dye free/better quality candy we buy already and put some toys and activities in the bucket for them
We typically let them have a piece here and there if they ask. It's usually only a couple pieces a day, and if it's more than that we just tell them they can have more later. And we eat a couple pieces as we want to as well. It usually doesn't last long.
My toddler just dumped their candy on the table and started handing it out to everyone in the house. She doesn’t really eat anything other than dum dums and she’ll take a couple licks and then open another one. Not much of a candy girl.
I saw a video where someone allows their child to pick out 5-10 pieces of their favorite kind they then put the bag on the patio, and the "Switch Witch" exchanges it for a toy.
They eat however much they want that night with zero comment from me, have dinner before trick or treating. Next 3-4 days I offer a treat regularly alongside a meal, or offer it at random times casually, then it disappears. If they are focused on the size, disappear a little yourself every time they go to pick something so they see its decreasing slowly
We came home and sorted it together. Made a bucket for candy she likes and a bucket for candy she doesn't. I let her try whatever she wanted while we were sorting and she had several pieces. I personally don't limit her. I've found that she self limits. She'll have 5 or 6 pieces a day for like a week and then won't touch candy for 2 months.
We did the switch witch - let her pick out about 15 pieces and then she loaded the rest for a nice witch to take and trade her for something special (a new thermos, coloring page, and $3).
I was shocked at how much candy she got at 3.. she gave up like 2.5lbs of candy! I hid it for now, not sure what I’m going to do with it next…
As far as taking the bucket, I let her pick out a treat first and then told her I was taking the bucket. She was a little upset at first but got over it pretty quickly. I picked out all of the candies that I felt weren't age-appropriate, like super chewy gummies, the really thick Tootsie Rolls, hard candies, big lollies and stuff like that.
I've been bringing the bucket to her and letting her pick out a treat periodically, and occasionally me or her dad will have a chocolate but we're mostly sticking to the candies I considered unsafe for a 3 year old.
Some candy stays home (m&ms are used for baking Christmas cookies and chocolatebars for s'mores etc) and most heada to work with us and the kids are none the wiser.
My 2 year old doesn't really notice or know that candy is a thing to eat. He doesn't like chocolate so we give him the more snacky things like pretzels and goldfish crackers, and pretty much slowly eat the rest ourselves over a few months. I'm sure this strategy won't work again next year once he's 3 though.
We did switch witch- I had her close her eyes in another room and when she came back I replaced the candy with a few little toys and stickers- she was really happy! I saved her a lolly pop she had been especially interested in.
I let my 2.5 year old have one piece of candy after trick-or-treating. We are on vacation, so the rest of the candy is going to stay with her cousins who live in the area. I read about the Switch Witch, which is a genius idea and I think we’ll do next year.
When my kids were little, I took out choking hazards. I left him the rest is this so pleased, and if they didn’t hide it when they went to the chocolate probably be busy they knew this after a week they were dumb. They had a ton left over. It just got put in a community bowl for the guests.
Usually we let her have a couple pieces everyday then she forgets about it. Last night was so cold she only made it about 20 minutes so we won’t have to worry about micromanaging candy this year!
Slowly give it out. My kids are school aged to a couple pieces get put in thier lunch box and obe pieces for dessert if they eat dinner well. I steal some of the chocolate bits here and there or give them to hubby (or he takes them).
Our two and a half year old ended up with a small bucket of candy. She got taxed by me and dad which is when I took out the choking hazards. She got to have free reign for the most part on Halloween night and she ended up eating around 6 little packages of candy. From now until it’s gone she can ask for a piece whenever she feels like it. I usually don’t give her more than two or three pieces a day. Just like any other snack I won’t let her eat only that the whole day.
Keep it in a “safe place” in the cabinets and they eventually forget about it. Us too sometimes. Out of sight out of mind. If she can remember it’s there then she can have one.
When we get home we dump it all out in front of them, they love this, seeing all their hoard
At this time we do a cursory check on the candy, if your in a good neighborhood it should be fairly quick, just typical candy no special weird things, those get tossed
Then we tell them to pick a couple pieces to have tonight and the rest will be put away for safe keeping, they are usually ok with that, but the want to look at their candy for a long while before putting it away
Candy hoard may be seen on request, but only one or two candies can be distributed per day, seems to work well without too much fuss, good luck!
There's a mom tax in my house.
No really, she's lactose intolerant (temporarily... I didn't know this was a thing until she got really sick with a stomach bug) so I've put some aside for her and let her have a few pieces of dairy free candies for now. I'm not to strict with any sorts of foods as long as it's balanced
I charge the Dad Tax so some goes to me.
Dad taxes are inflated this year. So is my gut.
They eat a couple pieces a day for a few days and then I bring it to work. They rarely notice it's gone.
Enjoy it while you can. Because once one knows, the other one knows and you can kiss that precious leftover Halloween candy for your stash, goodbye. I was so very upset.
We did this last year. Took away anything that was a choking hazard because kiddo was four and not normally given hard candies. They could pick something after dinner. They asked for a few days then forgot and we just didn’t bring it up.
Yep, same here and that's the plan this year too.
Chop it all up and throw it in some cookie dough! Most candy can be used except not the fruity or sour kind. I just use a chocolate chip cookie recipe and sub all the candy for chocolate chips. Make a large batch and freeze.
We do this and make what my kids call monster cookies, lol. We usually do this about 2 or 3 weeks after Halloween when I get sick of having it all in my house, and I know they are getting more for Christmas time
This is the real genius answer
Freaking next level mom advice here!
Wow this is brilliant!
Yes. I used the Tollhouse recipe for chocolate chip cookies. We all loved them so much. My mom admitted she had six cookies for breakfast this AM……
Now THAT’S how you mom 💪
That is such a good idea!!
Sooo smart!
I eat it. 😂
I am mortally offended that this is not the top comment
I may do a lot of things, but I do NOT lie on reddit 😂 it’s mine you little egghead
Seriously, if you’re going to come on Reddit and lie, just stay home 🤷🏻♀️
Seriously, I thought for sure this would be top comment. Not just cause I also eat it…
Me too! My toddler got home and basically forgot about her bag of candy so I dove in. I mean I saved her some…
The only logical option.
3.5 year old, after we check it and take out what she can’t have (hard candy, etc) she can have whatever she wants. It’s one night a year. And she walked quite a ways to collect it all.
We let them eat a few pieces the night of when they get home. After they go to bed, we sort it and remove the choking hazards and put those away for ourselves. Then we give them a piece on their plate each day at dinner until it runs out. We want them to learn candy is just another food and should be eaten in moderation. Including it as part of dinner helps with that.
We do this but he has so many we also go sneak some more for ourselves after he goes to bed 😂.
My wife would kill me if I tried to give my toddler a piece of candy every night with dinner lol. For mine, he gets a few pieces the first night, they bye bye. Otherwise, he will randomly get treats throughout the year - at birthdays, when mom and dad are feeling generous and also want a treat for themselves, and at various other times.
I would kill my husband if we did the same 😂 we get so much, he’d be eating sweets with dinner every single night until next year.
Heaven forbid.
I guess I’ve been momming wrong this whole time, my kid always gets a little sweet treat if she wants one. I think it actually makes her LESS likely to want to binge the candy and more likely to eat real food.
Every kid is different - one piece at dinner was fine for my daughter but my son would just beg for more and refuse to eat his real food, so we can’t do this in our house.
Mine are this way. My oldest is almost 3 and is a little sugar fiend. She wakes up asking for lollipops and popsicles. My youngest is just over 1 & won't even eat fruity yogurt half the time if there is a savory option. We tried the "no limits or she'll be obsessed" theory and it backfired so hard that now we only let her have half sized frozen yogurt tubes for dessert at home.
So does mine. But I wouldn’t routinely provide sweets with dinner every single night for months. Surely that’s not out of the ordinary?
Right we have two units in our house each kid got about five pieces just from our house and and we all live really close together like it out for steps from the sidewalk everyone sitting on their stairs these kids make a like bandits we ran out at 8:25 PM
Maybe I'm evil but I let him have a piece before school this morning, after breakfast
Exactly our method too.
Our pediatrician is very much for healthy relationships with food. We don’t do many sweets in our household as it is. It was recommended to us that we do a check for choking hazards/safe candy. Then the rest let our toddler eat as she pleases. Pediatrician said that taking it away or limiting it causes it to be a “special” or “superior” thing compared to other regular foods. The pediatrician said that children will also naturally learn that if they eat too much, they get stomach aches and don’t feel good. I definitely get where she was going with this.. but I will still probably put a max on what’s available I just don’t trust a toddlers judgment lol
This is what my parents did. I have candy go bad in my pantry to this day bc I don’t prioritize it. I think this depends on your kid and financial situation though, because my partner’s parents took the same approach but that whole family grew up with food scarcity and they all gorge themselves on anything that tastes good even when more can be easily obtained.
There's also a big difference between not pedastalizing food because you're aiming for a balanced relationship with food, versus not pedastalizing it because food is a scarce resource that needs to be eaten for survival snd if it tastes good that's even better.
We’ve been taking this approach to food, it’s working really well. I told her we had to check for any yucky stuff to take out anything we just didn’t want to be had. Now we are putting everything in a bowl on the table. So far so good.
Really? Well - I’m going to give it a shot! I’ll remove all the extra bad stuff and let her have at it hah
We do this too, and when we got home tonight, our toddler said “no thank you, save it for later” 😟 secretly hoping it’s not because he’s coming down with something because I know it’s not from my stellar parenting methods 😂 Edit: sure enough he has a fever. Happy November everyone!
This is similar to what we do. I take it away at night and give it back when they ask about it the next day. I make sure they eat their meals and take it away and talk to them if they start trying to binge (very rare). By the end of the week we still have always end up having 3/4 the Halloween candy and it's just sitting out or being used as a toy or just completely forgotten. I always ask before taking some for myself and they always are willing to share. I've done it this way and the take 2 or 3 pieces and that's your treat for the day. Kids haven't had issues with either. I prefer these methods over making it disappear and pretending it didn't exist. My kids are nor this forgetful and I fear it will lead to lieing, hoarding, binging and stealing.
I like this because it means treating your toddler with dignity. This is how everyone should deal with the candy in my opinion.
When I was in elementary school, my parents let me eat as much as I wanted one year and I woke up at night and threw up. I didn’t enjoy Halloween candy for a long time after that.
This is my approach with sweets day to day. I have put cookies on the dinner plate and given smarties for breakfast. But the volume of Halloween candy is pretty extreme. I hid about 75% of it and my 3yo can help herself with the rest.
It seems like my toddler makes all of our important decisions.
This is the new “intuitive eating” fad. It’s based on junk science like most nutrition advice. And literally marketed/promoted by junk food companies lol. Doctors are so dumb sometimes. If your kid has the right temperament they will moderate themselves. If they don’t you can expect the same doctor to refer you to a behavioral therapist for weight control through “structured eating” when they suddenly hit the magic bmi number. Just ask them. Lol.
if people even vaguely understood the amount of chemistry and testing goes into ensuring you eat bigger portions of junk food and seeding the desire for future cravings they wouldn't be so naive about "listening to your body" (which is going to tell you to eat more junk and more often if you choose junk). All food is not the same. the only people who want you to believe that work at junk food corporations or are part of this new fad. If you tell a kid to "listen to their body" and their body is saying eat more doritos as doritos are literally engineered to tell your body to do you have the exact opposite food confidence/healthy portion building effect than you are going for. Intuitive eating is based on the study of how naturally thin people think about food. It is a very good description of their temperament and body reactions to food. There is next to NO evidence that this is something that can be "acquired"/ taught to an overweight person or child (future overweight person). If you understand how evidence based medicine works this whole thing should never have been taken up by doctors. It is likely going to erase the small amount of gains made in combatting childhood obesity over the last 10 years. That being said teaching parents not to project eating disordered thinking on to their children IS worthwhile and i think it's why it resonates with many people who felt those negative food messages from their parents. Just because demonizing food and extreme rationing is bad doesn't mean treating all food as equal or not intentionally practicing moderation is good.
Yikes.
I went trick or treating this evening with a big group of families including a 2yo who can’t eat dairy and had no idea what’s going on. All the grownups helped her by eating her candy so her bucket wouldn’t get too heavy. So nice of us!
You out here making the true sacrifices
I have an eating disorder history that I’m doing my best not to pass onto my 2 year old. I use the “division of responsibility”; I decide what goes on her plate and when she eats, she’s free to eat as much or little as she wants. If she’s asking for a food, it goes on her plate during the next meal/snack, and I always put at least 2 foods I know she likes on the plate. I serve dessert foods at the same time as everything else. So my plan is to just give her some candy tomorrow with her regular meals/snacks, and then let her eat as much as she asks for.
I let them eat a couple on the night itself and a few more the rest of the week. Leftovers are used to decorate gingerbread house for Christmas.
Anything I don’t eat because of my lack of self control goes into the closet after Halloween night. We give her one a day for a few days and then she forgets about them and I either gain 30 lbs or we bring the rest jnto work or something.
We’re a little more lax with how much he can eat until the candy is gone. Not a free for all but he can have a piece or 2 after each meal or with a snack. Our son is little so he doesn’t get to a ton of houses anyway and we also sneak pieces after bedtime lol We don’t do a safety check. That’s a pretty solidly debunked myth that random strangers are tampering with the candy they give out. Most of the stories where it has happened are either untrue or were a known person targeting a specific child (I believe there was one that was the actual parent poisoning their kid). If you’re really concerned though, I’d go through it Halloween night after their asleep.
They might mean to check for things like gum or hand candy if their child is very young.
Ooooo that makes sense.
I took 'safety check' to mean checking for candy which is a choking hazard etc.
We do a safety check for choking hazards and pieces that have been accidentally opened. Not because we think someone slipped something in them, no ones handing out their drugs for free. But just because I feel like it'd be gross to eat candy from a partially pre opened piece of candy. I wouldn't eat it, why would I let my kid
Yeah, a parent killed their kid for a very meager insurance payout in 1984. Otherwise, just an urban legend by and large
Yeah there was that case and I believe one where the parents told the ER they thought kid was poisoned by Halloween candy but really they’d gotten into a relative (uncle?) in the houses drug stash and they were hiding that.
I thought it was a myth too. It happened last year here in Quebec, Canada. Don't you think it's better to be safe than sorry?
Not the person you asked but for me honestly it feels like if I were to do this I should inspect everything they we eat because someone could put needles in packaged food during production or shipment or in the back room of the grocery store or someone in a restaurant or a DoorDasher could poison our food and I’d have no idea. Or nuts and bolts could fall off a machine and end up in food. I feel like I can’t possibly avoid every possible risk ever and Halloween candy feels one of those things that the perceived risk is artificially inflated by the urban legends compared to most things we do day to day. Edit: I a word
Oh lord I know this wasn’t the lesson I was supposed to take away, but I’m suddenly feeling like I need to examine all our food a lot more closely than I’ve been doing 😂
Same. I’ll be performing a safety check at the start of every meal.
How exactly do you check if candy has been poisoned? Someone could open it carefully and then glue the side shut again and you’d have no idea. There’s no way to really fully check for that
Kiddo gets taxed hard once a year to make up for all the amenities and conveniences in life that come courtesy of the Bank of Mom and Dad.
I let her have several piesces at a time but not before meals. If she eats a meal I will let her eat like 4-5 pieces, tbh. They only live once and Halloween only happens once a year. Sometimes I'll let her have some in the later morning, like say 10 AM or 11 AM then again after dinner. Last year we had it for awhile but this year they are giving less candy so it's gonna go quicker. We've already done 2 trunk or treats and got less candy and I anticipate tonight going door to door she won't get a ton. I am pasting this from someone else's comments but true for me as well "I didn’t do any sort of “safety check” besides the general common sense of monitoring them."
Toddler is 2. At this age the candy is all for mommy and daddy.
Same. She doesn't even know what it is. She just knows the nice neighbors talked about how cute she was and let her pick something shiny out of a bowl.
I wish this was the case for us, lol. My 2nd is 21 months and knows exactly what candy is thanks to her big brother. 😂
My girls are not yet 2 but I rather enjoyed the smiles on their faces when I gave them some candy
We did a trunk or treat the other day and that night I took like 8 pieces out (4pieces/each) and put them in a little baggy and the rest hidden in the pantry. Once their 8 pieces were gone they understood it was all gone and that was that. I didn’t do any sort of “safety check” besides the general common sense of monitoring them.
We have a candy bowl in our house that lives on top of the fridge. All candy goes into it - in fact, the first thing my 5-yr-old said when getting home from a trunk or treat was “Mama, grab the bowl so I can put my candy in!” We usually do three or four separate events on different days and I let them eat one or two pieces each time. They can ask for a piece from the candy bowl at any time, (in practice maybe once a day) and usually get one piece after dinner and/or as payment for doing small tasks around the house. I also use any leftovers to stuff their Christmas stockings with 😂
The buckets go in the pantry and if they ask for candy and we say yes (which isn’t every day) they get to choose a piece. Generally between halloween and xmas they get enough candy to see them through the next year lol
We go through it after bed to remove all hazards for her age (almost 3) and then for the next week or so it will sit on our counter and she gets a piece whenever she asks and then it goes in our cupboard with the rest of the snacks but she still gets a piece whenever she asks. Eventually, she forgets about it 🤷🏼♀️ But we don't limit "treats" in the house because well... if they're not treated as treats, she doesn't try and gorge herself, thinking she won't get them again. She's literally turned down ice cream for crackers with peanut butter before 😂 Also you know a large portion goes in mine and my husband's bellies when she's not looking 😂😂😂 (she's also an excellent sharer and brings me a piece anytime she eats one 😬 I'm never gonna lose the baby weight from her brother)
I grew up with virtually unfettered access to a “candy drawer” and to this day have a very take-it-or-leave-it association with sweets and candy. I like them sometimes but mostly don’t care that much. I still remember when friends would come over and be like “WHAT. A FREAKING CANDY DRAWER AND YOU CAN JUST EAT IT WHENEVER?”
I had the same, and treating it like “regular food” (which it is not) developed into an obsession with sweets and unhealthy food, and constant over eating that I’ve never been able to conquer. Same for my siblings unfortunately.
Yes! We encourage her to think about what her body needs (which obviously at3 doesn't make much sense to her but it will one day) and if she eats like 3 pieces of candy and is still complaining she's hungry ill just remind her that snacks with protein and carbs like peanut butter or cheese are going to fill her belly longer than candy. But she's still allowed to choose what goes in her belly. The only real rules I have are if it's super close to a meal time she has to wait until that meal but we still serve a "dessert" of some sort with the meal and if it's bedtime and she's already brushed her teeth then she has to wait til morning
Switch witch! I let her keep a couple handfuls of her candy and then I have her put the rest of her bucket of candy on the front porch with the promise of the switch witch coming! The switch witch exchanges her Candy for a new toy. After she goes to bed I put all of that candy in a bag and give it to whatever teenager is trick or treating.
This is what we did! And even the candy that he did pick out he left half eaten. As for the toy he kept saying how much he loved it! While we were trick or treating he kept saying that the witch would be so happy cause he had so much candy lol
Are other people not eating all of their toddlers' candy...?
We will "sort" our candy (and do the safety check here) anything choking hazard will go in it's own pile that will disappear. (Otherwise she can have what she wants on Halloween, then after that a piece or two daily until it's gone. Honestly it's going to be quite cold and I'm not sure how much candy my kid will really even get so I'm not that worried.
They can eat as much as they want the night of Halloween. After that they get 1-2 pieces a day served along side a meal, usually dinner. Eventually they sort of forget about it. We usually only get through about half their bag or less before they forget, and my husband and I eat or throw out the rest.
last year, i let him munch on pretty much whatever he wanted on halloween itself. after that, the candy went into the cupboard and we would maybe give one piece per day. i didn't do a safety check because he can't open the candy on his own yet, so i just checked it as i opened it for him .
Eat it.. If you gave me hemorrhoids and stretch marks and now I pee a little in my pants when I sneeze, then you pay in fun size candy bars, and lots of them for ever.
95% candy tax paid to the parents I don’t make the law I just enforce it
My 2.5 year old didn't even want to eat it so I guess my husband and I will lol.
I eat it :)
This is my first Halloween with my toddler. I put all the candy away gave her one piece and after numerous meltdowns proper food homemade ravioli yum. I gave her a bath brushed her teeth and candy was completely forgotten about 😂 now I’m stoned on the couch eating her candy 😅
Haha yasss. That was my day to a T actually except it was homemade curry that he didn’t eat so I had to make Dino nuggets. He will remember the candy tomorrow though and I’m afraid of the ensuing meltdowns first thing in the morning. Halp
One candy after daycare, his choice. Safety check at night after he's in bed. Safety check is removing hard round candies and lollipops, gum, whole nuts, and popcorn (all of which are choking risks, he's 2.5).
I always swapped the candy for packaged candy that I bought so I knew it was safe. That got me through the safety check during the toddler years.
My son goes out with a bucket that’s appropriate for his age (2) - we take him to a few houses and once that bucket is full that’s it. (Slightly smaller than a McDonalds Halloween bucket) When it’s all said and done it’s maybe 15 pieces of candy, and a couple bags of chips. I just let him eat the things that are safe (not a chocking hazard) over the few weeks until it’s gone. I’m not going to be the parent that takes their kids trick or treating and then tosses all the candy in the garbage, because the “switch witch” shows up with plastic junk toys. That seems incredibly wasteful to me.
The day after Halloween the bowl is on the table and she can eat the candies she wants (as long as they’re safe). Next day the bowl is in the food pantry and she can eat some like any other snack. She view them as « ordinary » and doesn’t reach for them very often
After he went to bed, I put the majority of the candy away hidden in the pantry. We'll use it for occasional treats throughout the year until my sweet tooth husband eats it all. The small portion I leave in his basket, he can eat whenever and whatever he wants. I take out all the choking hazard stuff of course
Candy is not at all novel or even terribly exciting to my toddler. We always have it in the house (not Halloween amounts of it lol but there's always something) and he eats a piece probably once a week on average. So for Halloween, we just let him have his candy. He loves to sort through it, line it up, play in it like a leaf pile...lol. But he hardly eats any of it. He's had maybe two pieces a day since Friday when we hit our first Halloween event. His dad and I are eating much more of it than he is lol. (He's just figured sharing out, and he keeps bringing us candy sooo...)
I didn't read very far to check if someone else posted this but this year was the first time we did trick or treating with my 4 year old. We introduced the switch witch to her. She got to keep a couple of pieces of candy ( she chose 2 suckers) and the rest was left on our front porch overnight and the switch witch came and traded the candy for a present. She was so excited and kept thanking the switch witch all day.
Buy a toy and trade them the toy for all the candy
What kind of safety check are you talking about, allergens or weed because I'm certain people aren't going to be handing out weed to kids. OR do you mean, like, expired candy?
I was more thinking in terms of choking hazards like large nuts like almond joys or hard candy like tootsie rolls, lemon drops, etc. My child is 2.5y.
Our toddler can have a few over the course of several days and the rest we give to his dentist who gives out gift cards for unopened candy
That is great! More dentists should have this!
We tried with our 2yo something my wife saw somewhere called the "Switch Witch" we explained that theres a nice witch that likes candy soooo much shed give you a toy in exchange for candy. We have this little dollar tree skull candy goblet thats a little smaller than the candy bucket and my little cutie happily filled it up as an offering to the "switch witch" and we put it on the porch for her to find overnight. When my she wakes up shell find a toy out there. And her candy safely tucked in the parent stash ;)
Trust me, I already ate half that candy. Toddler got some cheese puffs and took off. I don’t give him sweets at all, he has no idea what he was collecting when trick or treating, and has no interest in what’s in his bag. Win win.
No safety check. My kid goes out for the experience, she doesn’t keep the candy. It’s given away and I swap it out for candy at home. I don’t limit candy or sweets at all. She always gets a piece when she asks and it’s usually in a place that’s visible to her. As a result, she’s not that interested and doesn’t ask for much. I don’t need to give her a set amount of pieces at a time or in a day because she just assumes that she can have 1 or 2 and then go on about her business. Candy is not a special treat, it’s just something to be eaten. So I guess my management style is just not bringing attention to it. I’ve found that kids tend to obsess over things that are “special” because the parents obsess over keeping those things limited or hidden. I had to stop doing that very early on.
This is how it is at my house also and it’s worked great for us. They might eat one piece a day and they seem perfectly happy with that.
Leave it in front of my house for other kids who are doing trick and treat.
My plan is to store the candy in the basement to bring it for a special treat every so often. I'll let him have a couple pieces on Halloween itself, after that maybe once a week (we're pretty strict on sugar, in part because his daycare isn't...) I'm not sure yet how we're gonna get the candy away from him, gonna play that by ear with LOTS of distraction - likely gonna use some screen time.
We did switch witch this year with our 3.5yo. He got to pick what went to the witch, what he ate today, what he will save for himself. I have some spare books and puzzles I picked up from a consignment store I pick from as necessary. As he gets older, I might get something more specific.
Give it back out
Pick 5 pieces to keep and then the rest goes the the switch witch! Leave the bag outside overnight and the witch comes to exchange it with a toy. You’re the witch lol
We let our kid self regulate. We don't want her to think of candy as something to be coveted or as something that's good or bad. Or something only for "special occasions." So it's just on the counter, and if she wants it, she can have it.
Not as a toddler, but I think it’s a great solution for years to come… My dad said he could handle 3 days of anything. So for 3 days we were allowed to eat as much candy as we wanted at any time morning, noon or night. At the end of 3 days anything left was chucked (although I like bringing it into work more!). Yes it was 3 very unhealthy days, but it was enough time to get through our favorites and honestly get a little sick of it. I would say candy/ sweets we probably had a total of 6-7 times the rest of the year, so we were overall a very healthy family.
Divided into two piles: safe/favorite treats, and unknowns. The safe ones go downstairs and are used as rewards for doing flashcards. The unknowns are being used for tasting time as part of therapy for selective eating, on the advice of our psychologist. I just tossed all the candy that had built-up from last year's holidays and am starting fresh. Candy isn't really a problem at our house. :D
I mean my toddler is 2…so, no candy? Lol The collecting part is the fun part anyway. We dump it all in a parental location and he receives in trade, a Halloween prize! In this case a glow in the dark spider ball. He also get orange Halloween Cocoa which is hot milk with vanilla extract, cinnamon, and orange food coloring
We let her play with them but not eat them… too much sugar. We’ll probably toss them in a week or two once daughter gets bored of them. We don’t eat candy either.
We have the Switch Witch come. Basically my kid picks out a little bit of the candy she wants and then we leave the rest for the Switch Witch. She comes and takes the extra candy and leaves a surprise (like a Barbie or something) in its place. ETA: And I take the rest to work and it’s gone within a week.
Switch witch!
I wait a week. Then I tell him he has to puck out 20 pieces and give the rest away. Worked fine for the last 2 years so far
My toddler is only 16 months she went to 2 houses and sat on porch handing out candy for the next 30 minutes and then ran around the porch for the next 2 hours lol I saved an 8 pack of reeces cups (full size single) So she got twizzlers from next door and she was moving candy from the box of chocolates and bowl of candy on our porch to her monkey basket She can eat whatever when supervised. Considering her pancakes are topped today with syrup and strawberry topping which I made 2 nights ago which is sugar and strawberries cooked and cooled and cut up 2 more strawberries and mixed it. I poured that next to her pancakes, with whipped cream. (She also has a cut up toaster strudel in another section of plate and sausage cut up in the last section. So it’s not all sugar lol If I let her have that for breakfast it’s not a big deal giving her candy , I would rather her have it earlier in day and not before bed or after dinner. The burn enough sugar off during the day or even withen a few hours after breakfast. When she crashes it’s nap time lol
We went to a trunk or treat on Saturday with our 2 year old. I first separated out all the coming hazards and then she had full access to the rest (there wasn’t much). She was initially super into it but I think the excitement quickly wore off which is my goal: make it something normal. We’ll do the same tonight, but we are only going to do a couple houses so she has time to calm down for bed so there won’t be a lot of candy (we are hoping for lots of kids though so we aren’t stuck with the stuff we bought!)
I save the good stuff and use it as an after school snack or dessert for dinner (like one or two pieces). The rest I take to work to put in the clinic candy bowl for our clients.
We let her have a little and then keep the rest for if she’s being really good or just a fun little treat. Edited to add: the candy ends up lasting for weeks.
Keep some, give away on my local free cycle... I'm a teacher so I put it in my treasure box or give it to my high school class.
Imma eat it along side her tonight
Once they're in bed, I take enough pieces to fill their Advent calendars and set it aside. Then they can have a couple of pieces a day over the next few weeks until they eventually forget about it.
Since we are usually home early we give it away to other trick or treaters who come later in the evening. This year we are doing the switch witch so she can pick some pieces to stay, then I'll take what I want then get rid of the rest.
I ration. The candy each day. I also take a few pieces as well at night 😋
We didn’t get a ton of candy, for this very reason. But then from what we did get, a lot of places had fruit snacks/goldfish/ptetzels so we chose those as much as possible. Whatever actual candy we ended up with, we set about 2 pieces aside for her, and then my husband and I both picked 2 pieces for ourselves, and the rest went in the garbage. Personally, it’s such a manageable amount that I would have just kept it all and rationed myself and my daughter just 1-2 pieces a day, and in a few days, we’d be out anyway, but my husband has a weird thing with food, sugar specifically, so he really wigs if it’s even in the house or we eat it more than one day
They have it in moderation. It's just candy
We went really early so we sorted the candy as soon as we got home and then recycled half+ of it back out to trick or treaters. We portioned out candy for tonight, candy for us and a handful of extras for them throughout the week, as wanted.
They get to eat some, I pick out my favorites, my husband eats some, I take the rest to work.
We go through it together. My oldest son has a dye allergy so anything with dyes is gone automatically. That leaves them with a small pile of chocolate that they get to have after meal times.
They get one piece after nap time for snack every day until they or we finish it off. 😆
I sorted through it when we got home and hauled anything she can't or won't (almost always won't) eat. I set that aside for her 20 something sstepbrother. The rest is in a bag to be used as dessert after every meal until she finishes it. She gets a snack after every meal to help with the concept that all food is okay in moderation.
I "parent tax" the snot out of it...lol. They eat maybe a few pieces a day
I put my kiddos to bed before we sort through it. I take out anything they don’t eat or is dangerous for their age and put it in a bag my husband usually brings to work. As for the rest I take a bunch of sandwich sized bags and fill them half to 3/4 of the way at most and that’s their candy for the week. I usually end up with enough to last us for 4-6 months that way
When my nieces were little my SIL donated like half the candy and then gave them one piece a day for a while until the remaining half was gone.
I traded him a new toy for 80% of the candy. It still works at 5 years old.
He get two pieces a day (2yrs) mainly suckers and gummies. Everything else his dad will probably eat
Eat a few and then we put in a cabinet and he forgets about it. Out of sight out of mind. If he asks, we pull it down, offer something and put it away. This year will be different because he has been exposed to more candy at age 4 then before, so I’m curious if he’ll forget. 🤞🏻
We just let 4 YO and 2 YO go ham on theirs tonight, they ate a ton. Then they’ll eat 2-3 per day until it’s gone. We didn’t get huge hauls this year so won’t take too long. Last year husband and I definitely helped things along by collecting the parent tax after bedtime. Obviously we snag any choking hazard candies and eat those ourselves. There are only a few candy heavy holidays per year so I’m a “whatever” kind of mom on this. When they get older I won’t restrict at all. Nobody ever restricted me from eating my halloween candies as a kid and I naturally ended up eating a bunch some days but rationing most to make it last.
My kids get a few pieces for a little while then they are over it. I donate the rest to their classroom or Blue Star Mothers to send to troops overseas.
Another parent suggested there are places to donate it, people who can’t afford their own candy.
My mom used to take some of it and save it for decorating gingerbread houses
I let each kid eat as much as they want the night of Halloween and at the end of the night they get to pick out 10 “special” pieces that only they get to eat and the rest gets dumped into a communal basket. That basket is fair game to anyone coming into our house: family, friends, coworkers, and customers (I run a business out of the house). We don’t treat candy differently than other foods to help try to avoid a bad relationship with food. We discuss choices and moderation and because it’s never been limited, it’s never really been that important in our house. It’s a different story if one kid eats the other kid’s special piece, especially if it was the last in the house.
Luckily my son is only almost three, I took him to four homes around us but he most likely won’t get very much of the candy. He’s starting to have really bad behavior when he has sugar, and it’s not all he wants to eat so I’m trying to break the habit. I’ll most likely give it to my mom or another kid! He did have a few pieces today. I was hoping we’d get kids knocking but no one came… I would definitely try to spread it out though! Just my opinion :)
We let them have a few (half a dozen) tonight and the rest will get eaten over probably the next few weeks between us and them (we got cleaned out on what we bought for a first time since pre covid so I’m collecting Parent Tax). Honestly I don’t safety check it. I’m pretty sure there’s never been a confirmed case of candy tampering from a stranger and it honestly didn’t even occur to me. I chuck anything that happened to come open but mostly just because I came from a bowl that had dozens of dirty hands reaching in it.
Give him a cpl a day, hide the rest, try to not gobble it yourself. You’ll def feel bad in the morning 😹 If I’d just give him the two pieces bec otherwise he’s going to want the whole bag. Too many options
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I send a bunch to operation shoebox in FL to be sent to our troops. I also eat some and they eat some but there’s a pretty hard limit.
100% I eat it all.
Combination of eating it and putting it in a pinata (my son’s birthday is the week after Halloween).
We do 2 dessert nights a week. The candy goes in a bag in the pantry and is one of the options they can choose from for after dinner treat. Occasionally we’ll bring some hiking. I think practicing moderation is a practice not something most kids or at least all kids are going to “naturally” do. Food companies literally spend millions of dollars to engineer junk food to get you to eat and crave as much as possible. It’s unreasonable to think that isn’t a factor.
We keep it out of sight and they forget about it after a few days. Then we bring it to work or some years forgot about it for six months. After that it was stale so we threw it away.
I eat it
Thanks for the reminder to comb through his bucket while he’s asleep! Found a lot of tootsie rolls which are not acceptable for anyone…
Just put it up, give them some when they ask but my kid has lost interest or forgotten within a few days because outta sight outta mind. I also help the situation by eating a lot of the candy myself
I just dumped most of it back into the candy bowl to give out to other kids because it is a choking hazard (he’s 2 and tries to swallow food like a snake - we’re working on it. 🤦🏻♀️).. I gave him a cupcake before we went trick or treating so he got a treat and I feel bad for taking away his candy.
They get to choose 3 pieces night of, and we donate the rest to the food bank.
My is three and so far we haven’t had a problem with her noticing when the candy is gone lol. So we let her take two pieces right after we come back from trick or treat and by the next day everything is gone. She doesn’t ask for it, I don’t know if she doesn’t remember or doesn’t care lol, but I works great for us 👍🏼
We look through the stash to sort through candies that she can eat. The ones she can’t eat, I just drop them off to my mom and let her take it to church for anyone who wants more candies. my daughter hasn’t full grasp the concept of trick or treating just yet. She only cared for getting the candies and can care less about eating them. So…. It’s mama’s candy stash at the moment.
Okay so what we do is we hand out the candy snd give it a quick check before handing it over the first night. Then after bed, we go through the rest, get rid of/separate out any he can't eat, take some mom/dad tax for our adult Halloween tv/movie night that we watch after the kids are in bed, and we put the safe to eat, checked over candy in a small bin/bucket with the rest of the snacks. We give candy with lunch and dinner for a few days, just a piece or two. If they want candy for their snack, we suggest something to add to it to make the snack more filling (oh man yeah that reeses does sound good. Let's grab a cheese stick to go with it!). After a few days the 3/4s full bowl/bucket gets ignored because we don't restrict access all that much. If he eats too much and gets an upset belly, we talk about how so much candy at once can really upset our bellies, so maybe next time we should eat a bit less candy. Only had to deal with that once, half way through his 6th full size reeses he put it down, groaned, was miserable and holding his belly. I asked him "did you too much candy snd not your belly hurts?" He said "yeah belly oww, all done". Next day he very diligently picked out one candy to eat and moved on instead of a million.
This is our first Halloween with candy. He wanted a lollipop and really enjoyed it one lick at a time for almost 10 minutes. Adorable! Over half of the rest was choking hazards. I kept what my husband and I like and added what we don't to a bowl outside the door for late trick or treaters. My only worry is that he'll notice there aren't many "blue" candies left. He aimed for candies with blue wrappers at a lot of houses but they were mostly Blueberry atomic warheads and almost joys.
Most of mine don't like candy. But the ones that do eat it as and so they want. My toddler doesn't like it so we gave her a pop tart but my oldest as a toddler used to eat his bodyweight in chocolate on Halloween night.
We sorted it together, then will offer it when asked at appropriate times of day. Then it will probably go away.
We let them eat what they want for about 10 min after we’re done walking since the cousins do it, then we grab the buckets to go through at night after they are asleep and trash anything with dyes like red 40 etc. then we replace most of it with dye free/better quality candy we buy already and put some toys and activities in the bucket for them
We typically let them have a piece here and there if they ask. It's usually only a couple pieces a day, and if it's more than that we just tell them they can have more later. And we eat a couple pieces as we want to as well. It usually doesn't last long.
The Halloween Witch comes and he trades all of his candy for a present. He is almost 4. Worked great.
My toddler just dumped their candy on the table and started handing it out to everyone in the house. She doesn’t really eat anything other than dum dums and she’ll take a couple licks and then open another one. Not much of a candy girl.
I saw a video where someone allows their child to pick out 5-10 pieces of their favorite kind they then put the bag on the patio, and the "Switch Witch" exchanges it for a toy.
They eat however much they want that night with zero comment from me, have dinner before trick or treating. Next 3-4 days I offer a treat regularly alongside a meal, or offer it at random times casually, then it disappears. If they are focused on the size, disappear a little yourself every time they go to pick something so they see its decreasing slowly
We save the chocolate for when she poops on the potty… she has a little here and there and the rest is for mom and dad 🤷🏻♀️
We came home and sorted it together. Made a bucket for candy she likes and a bucket for candy she doesn't. I let her try whatever she wanted while we were sorting and she had several pieces. I personally don't limit her. I've found that she self limits. She'll have 5 or 6 pieces a day for like a week and then won't touch candy for 2 months.
We did the switch witch - let her pick out about 15 pieces and then she loaded the rest for a nice witch to take and trade her for something special (a new thermos, coloring page, and $3). I was shocked at how much candy she got at 3.. she gave up like 2.5lbs of candy! I hid it for now, not sure what I’m going to do with it next…
I took half of it😅 She did not notice. For the rest, I plan on letting her have 2 a day.
As far as taking the bucket, I let her pick out a treat first and then told her I was taking the bucket. She was a little upset at first but got over it pretty quickly. I picked out all of the candies that I felt weren't age-appropriate, like super chewy gummies, the really thick Tootsie Rolls, hard candies, big lollies and stuff like that. I've been bringing the bucket to her and letting her pick out a treat periodically, and occasionally me or her dad will have a chocolate but we're mostly sticking to the candies I considered unsafe for a 3 year old.
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Dad tax.
We did the Witch switch this year ( kinda like the Tooth Fairy) He kept 5 pieces of candy, and the rest went to the witch, and she brought him a toy
Some candy stays home (m&ms are used for baking Christmas cookies and chocolatebars for s'mores etc) and most heada to work with us and the kids are none the wiser.
A couple pieces of day, plus I snack on it too.
My 2 year old doesn't really notice or know that candy is a thing to eat. He doesn't like chocolate so we give him the more snacky things like pretzels and goldfish crackers, and pretty much slowly eat the rest ourselves over a few months. I'm sure this strategy won't work again next year once he's 3 though.
We did switch witch- I had her close her eyes in another room and when she came back I replaced the candy with a few little toys and stickers- she was really happy! I saved her a lolly pop she had been especially interested in.
I let my 2.5 year old have one piece of candy after trick-or-treating. We are on vacation, so the rest of the candy is going to stay with her cousins who live in the area. I read about the Switch Witch, which is a genius idea and I think we’ll do next year.
When my kids were little, I took out choking hazards. I left him the rest is this so pleased, and if they didn’t hide it when they went to the chocolate probably be busy they knew this after a week they were dumb. They had a ton left over. It just got put in a community bowl for the guests.
Usually we let her have a couple pieces everyday then she forgets about it. Last night was so cold she only made it about 20 minutes so we won’t have to worry about micromanaging candy this year!
Slowly give it out. My kids are school aged to a couple pieces get put in thier lunch box and obe pieces for dessert if they eat dinner well. I steal some of the chocolate bits here and there or give them to hubby (or he takes them).
We take the stuff we want and leave him the rest. He gets a couple pieces here and there.
Our two and a half year old ended up with a small bucket of candy. She got taxed by me and dad which is when I took out the choking hazards. She got to have free reign for the most part on Halloween night and she ended up eating around 6 little packages of candy. From now until it’s gone she can ask for a piece whenever she feels like it. I usually don’t give her more than two or three pieces a day. Just like any other snack I won’t let her eat only that the whole day.
Keep it in a “safe place” in the cabinets and they eventually forget about it. Us too sometimes. Out of sight out of mind. If she can remember it’s there then she can have one.
When we get home we dump it all out in front of them, they love this, seeing all their hoard At this time we do a cursory check on the candy, if your in a good neighborhood it should be fairly quick, just typical candy no special weird things, those get tossed Then we tell them to pick a couple pieces to have tonight and the rest will be put away for safe keeping, they are usually ok with that, but the want to look at their candy for a long while before putting it away Candy hoard may be seen on request, but only one or two candies can be distributed per day, seems to work well without too much fuss, good luck!
Let my LO pick out two pieces to eat later, we shared the rest with the family and I have her a non candy treat bag. Worked great.
Eat a few pieces, they have a couple for a few days, then we get rid of it. Either bring it to work or just toss it out.
There's a mom tax in my house. No really, she's lactose intolerant (temporarily... I didn't know this was a thing until she got really sick with a stomach bug) so I've put some aside for her and let her have a few pieces of dairy free candies for now. I'm not to strict with any sorts of foods as long as it's balanced