What Are You Doing With Your Leftover Halloween Candy?

What Are You Doing With Your Leftover Halloween Candy?

If you're anything like most moms who celebrate Halloween, you're staring at a pile of your children's snickers, skittles, kit-kats and m & m's wondering what to do with all the leftover Halloween candy.  I'm assuming your reese's peanut butter cups and licorice are already gone!  

Do you watch your kids tearing through candy after candy and feel a little anxious or like you're a bad mom?  Isn't everybody sugar-free and gluten-free these days???

Do you have the "candy fairy" come to take away the candy and leave behind a toy?  

Do you let your kids eat what the want on Halloween and donate the rest the next morning in an attempt to just "get it out of the house"?

While these options might feel tempting, none of the above options will help to promote a relationship of trust between your child and their food.  

Most often, it's the adults that need to deal with our own anxieties around food.  If we can relax and let our children self-regulate, they will lose interest over time.  Whether it's candy, ice cream, carrots, apples or potato chips, overconsumption of any particular food over time will lose its appeal.  Think back to your college days where you swore that you couldn't touch one more bowl of ramen noodles even if someone paid you.  Well, maybe you needed the cash in college so you ate them, but you know what I mean.  

At our house, I let the kids empty their loot on the floor so they can get excited about what they've procured.  Some of our kids like to categorize, some like to trade and others just like to dig in and enjoy.  

Bedtime rolls around and the kids do fall asleep despite eating sugar.  There really aren't studies to back the common myth that sugar causes hyperactivity and an inability to fall asleep.  The later bed time is more likely from a later evening, a day full of constant stimulation and good 'ol adrenaline from racing house to house to get the best loot.  

The next day, there's still a lot of excitement so I let the kids have what they want with breakfast, snacks and dessert after dinner. We can't take in any food to our school, or I'd likely send in some favorite pieces for lunch.  After that, we stick to a couple of pieces for dessert after dinner and for snack after school until they candy is gone or they lose interest.  Our school also collects candy to send to troops overseas so I offered this as an option, but I didn't make it an obligation.  

Watching the kids enjoy their candy with full abandon is a beautiful reminder that food is meant to be enjoyed.  Food is a part of holidays, traditions, celebrations and community.  In order for our kids to keep this sense of joy, we need to allow them to make their own choices and self-regulate.  

If you take candy away from your child, that shows them that you don't trust them and that they can't possibly trust themselves around food.  You'll very likely find your child sneaking and hoarding food down the road and then both you and your child will likely feel shame and guilt.  We don't want to teach our kids that certain foods are good and others are bad.  Demonizing food only makes a healthy relationship with food more difficult.  

Remind yourself that Halloween is a learning opportunity for your kids (and you).  
If you let your children self-regulate, they'll know exactly what to do with that pile of candy.  

xoxo,