Keep little ghosts and ghouls healthy at Halloween with tips from The Children’s Medical Center

Halloween is a time of candy galore and glorious candy for little ghosts, goblins and ghouls. Although children will be anxious to take part in the Halloween feast, it is important to remember the healthy aspects of this spooky holiday.

Children and parents may find it difficult to stay healthy during Halloween, especially when candy usually is the main Halloween staple.

“Parents should be encouraged to promote healthy snacking along with the candy and offer age appropriate snacks,” says Theresa Taylor, clinical dietitian at The Children’ s Medical Center of Dayton.

• Sugar free gum
• Animal crackers
• Pretzels
• Teddy graham snacks
• Goldfish crackers
• Granola bars

Parents don’ t have to limit their Halloween treats to food. Plenty of little princes and princesses also might enjoy non-food items such as pencils, erasers, or stickers.

To encourage children into a healthy lifestyle during the holiday, Taylor recommends setting guidelines of two candy choices a day with healthy eating. If children continually eat more low-nutritional food, they will get into the habit of always eating unhealthy foods. Parents also should promote eating foods from the food pyramid such as apples, graham crackers, and low fat cheese.

Parents also should consider keeping Halloween candy out of children’s direct view to avoid eating more candy at one time. Children need to eat balanced meals, even during Halloween. Food from the food pyramid such as vegetable soup, carrots, broccoli, apples and bananas are essential to balanced, nutritional meals. To avoid spoiling dinner, parents also should not offer candy too close to meal times.

Parents should avoid eliminating sweets from a child’s diet. Eliminating sweets causes the child to want more. This can be an even bigger problem for the parent. Taylor also says that brushing teeth after candy and snacks is important too.

Halloween is a time of tricks and treats. Parents should be sure to check their children’ s candy to avoid any adult “tricks.”

“ If children’s candy or food is opened or if any seal is broken, be sure to discard it,” Taylor says. “By doing this, parents also can check the candy choices and supervise the selection.”

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