Eating candy at halloween

I am really trying to figure out what to do this Halloween with regards to letting my kids eat candy. First off I have to say that my kids have not had chocolate or candy yet, they do have other treats once and awhile but up to this point we have just avoided foods that were too sugary. I don't plan on doing this forever and figure that soon I will have to let them have some.
What do you do at Halloween, let them have all the candy, ration it out, gorge one night and then throw away, donate it?
I know as a kid my parents let me have my entire stash and I could eat it whenever I wanted, and I never gorged myself or got sick, I just rationed it out a little everyday, but because my kids are 3 they probably arent ready for that freedom...
I was thinking that perhaps this year I will replace their candy with treats they are familiar and happy with and deal with this next year!

 

We have a rule of no more than one piece a day. The first year we let them have candy, it lasted until Valentines day.

 

We do two pieces a day instead of dessert with dinner. But of course, I go through it first and remove anything that i wouldn't want them having, like a full size candy bar or anything that I particularly like. The actual day of TnT, we allow them to eat inbetween the neighborhood and our house, when they're in the car (we don't TnT in our neighborhood, we go to another area.)

 

We usually do one to two pieces a day for dessert until gone as well. At this age, DH & I also help ourselves. :good:

 

Not sure how it will work out this year... last year yes, they gorged themselves, and I put everything away (and most of it in the trash, a lot of junk that even I wouldn't eat) after they went to bed. Then I gave them a couple a day until they were gone.

But last year they had a huge meltdown when I put the bags away when they were up... so we'll see...

 

Last year (my girls were 3.5) they ate a few pieces of candy while trick-or-treating. Then after they went to bed I sorted the candy and kept a few things of Smarties to use as bribes when needed. Then I threw everything else out. My girls asked about their candy a few times but we just directed their attention elsewhere and they didn't seem to care.

This year I'm sure they'll remember their candy more than they did last year, but I think I'm still going to take similar actions. They can have a few pieces of candy the night of. And then overnight most of their candy will disappear. I'll keep a few pieces for each of them and they'll be saved for special occasions.

 

Last year my girls got to eat some candy the day of halloween, and then we sent some to the sitter's house to share, and then DH and I gorged on the rest. Ha! Not really, but we did eat most of it and got chastized by two 3 1/2 year olds for "eating OUR candy!" We'll see how this year goes. Oh and we only went to some shops for ToT'ing and then around our cul de sac to minimize the amount of candy they got.

 

I have also heard of the "Halloween Fairy" who comes to take the candy soon after Halloween and then leaves a toy in exchange. The Halloween Fairy reportedly gives the candy to the other little boys and girls who did not get to go trick-or-treating on Halloween.

In our house, we will probably do a small piece after dinner for awhile (maybe a week or so). Then it will be ALL MINE to eat!!! :banana: :banana:

 

Which reminds me... unfortunately the ones I like the most have the most plain packages, so my kids always go for the pink/purple junk instead. *sigh*

 

I have also heard of dentists who will buy the candy from kids might be something to check into then they could go buy a toy.

 

We've always done it the same way and will continue this year. They get to eat some that night then dh and I pull out any we don't want them to eat. The next few days they can eat a good bit for snack and after lunch/dinner then within four days or so the rest disappears. Is rather they get it over with quickly than get used to having a little bit of sweets every day for months.

 

We let them have one piece a day. The danger, as Meredith said, is that it takes so long for them to eat it, that they start thinking having candy every day is a human right. But I would really rather not let them go insane and binge on it.

When they were almost 3 (the first year they went trick or treating), they didn't get much candy because they didn't have much stamina. And they didn't know how much they had, so DH and I were able to "disappear" most of it a week after Halloween.

When they were almost 4, they got more candy, and they remembered how much they had (sort of). That's when we started letting them have one piece a day and not taking any of it away from them. One of the kids finished hers a couple of months ago -- the other one still has some left and is distressed that we said we would throw away all leftover candy on October 30 and start fresh!

When they get candy for any other reason (Easter, birthday parties, etc.), it also goes in the Halloween bag. That's partly why it took so long for them to eat it, but mostly it was just from last Halloween.

I'd probably still try to buy or steal some of it from them, but DH thinks it's every kid's right to eat ALL her Halloween candy. :ibiggrin:

 

We do the same here. I let them have two pieces the night of Halloween and then they can have 2 pieces a day for a week or two following Halloween. DH and I will go through the candy and pull out what looks questionable or things they can't eat (i.e. Mary Janes, Sugar Babies). I will also give some candy for my Mom to take into her office because there is no way my kids would be able to eat all that candy.

 

Last year my girls went trick o' treating but only to a few houses in the neighborhood. They were thrilled with that and didn't really want to go to more houses. Also, they were so excited about a lollipop they got at the first house that I sneaked some of the other candy our of their bags and they didn't notice. Note sure this would work for almost 4 year olds, though!

Also, I remember my mom giving my brother and I a choice with our Halloween candy when we were little. We could either eat it all in one night or freeze it and have one piece a day. In retrospect, I'm not sure what this accomplished - I think I chose to eat it all in one night and got sick. Maybe she was trying to teach us delayed gratification!

In general, however, I don't worry about special ocassion treats. Halloween is once a year and gorging on candy for one day won't hurt them. I actually read a study somewhere that said that kids who had no candy as young children tended to be more overweight than kids who did eat candy as small children. Go figure...

 

Last year when we got home I had prepared for some Annies organic gummies for treats. They were fine with just that and were ready for bed anyway. This year we have been talking about just one piece. I really think if you hand them something (candy or a treat) they are fine with it at this age, they really just enjoy the whole night and the candy is secondary. I plan on handing them some candy and taking rest away by distracting them like I did last year. Not sure how many years I can get away with it! But my DH is more than happy with his bags of candy!

 

In the past we have done one or two pieces a day until it is gone (last year it lasted forever). This year DH and I are bothing on diets, so I think I will keep it for a few weeks and then bring it into work and let my subcontractors eat the rest of it. Neither of us have much will power when it comes to the good candy!

 

I'm going to make it a family bowl for everybody. Which means DH & I'll eat most of it. :ibiggrin:

 

Since my kids forget about the junk pretty quick, we let them eat some the first few days, and then I sort thru and pick out the chocolate/m&m's, suckers, and rockets (what the USA calls smarties). We keep all that stuff and I send the rest of it to work with DH for the guys there.

Then, after a few months, I send most of the chocolate, suckers, and rockets, since my kids have since forgotten about it because it's been sitting in a ziplock bag at the back of the cabinet.

Christmas candy, v-day candy, and easter candy follows the same pattern Honestly, my kids would eat about a handful of candy a year and be fine! They are so strange! :lol: They love it, don't get me wrong, they just forget about it, and since I don't offer it and forget about it too, we just don't eat a lot of it!

 

We do the same as danibell. Once it is out of sight, it is out of mind so DS1 knows that 2/3rds of his candy is going to work with me the next day. Then the rest he is allowed to keep. He eats one piece/day for the first few days then forgets about it. All of the holiday candy usually just ends up in my office or we through it out at the end of a month.

 

We do this. Well, I don't necessarily throw it away, but I put it away. There's actually a bowl on a top shelf in my cupboard that still has some from last year. But a local dentist has a sign out that they pay by the pound for candy that you turn in. So that might be an option the kids would like, too.

I don't know, at 3, my kids would definitely know if the stuff in their bag was not the stuff they got going door to door. It might work, but then again? I have a friend whose son is allergic to corn in any variety, including corn syrup which is in everything. Apparently reese's peanut butter cups are made with real sugar, so she gathers up what he collects and trades him for those, then redistributes what he's gathered to kids coming to her house.

 

we go threw the candy that night or the next. if its not that cheap gross candy then its in the keep pile my boys get to keep about 10 to 15 pieces each and the rest goes into the bag for the candy fairy. who will bring them a treat for their candy. I will then throw out the cheap grow crap,and keep the yummy stuff. then i will allow them to have 1 piece a day as long as they got a green in their behavior folder from school that day.

 

They usually get to pick a few pieces the night of Halloween and 1-2 pieces a night for dessert. They get so much candy though! I heard somewhere that you can send your candy overseas to soldiers and I was going to look into that. I thought maybe they could pick out 20 pieces each and we could send the rest over.

 

Chocolate doesn't hold up well in the heat, but I have a friend in Afghanistan who regularly requests care packages with fruity candy (like Twizzlers).