For most kids, Halloween trick-or-treating is a highlight of the year — their annual chance to go a little wild, stay up late, stock up and overindulge on chocolate, candy corn and Sour Patch Kids.
Children with severe food allergies and their parents, however, may experience the inverse of that sense of abandon. For families whose daily routines around food involve scoured food labels, curated pantries and careful planning, the spontaneity involved in trick-or-treating can be dangerous, stressful and discouraging.
“This is the holiday that children in the United States come together around, and the major aspect of it is food,” says Jessica Edwards George, an applied psychology professor at Northeastern University. “And there isn’t a candy that’s safe for everyone.”
Approximately 1 in 13 school-age children in the United States have at least one food allergy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And despite a huge increase in the prevalence of food allergies in the last 30 years, many of the most popular Halloween candies still contain at least one, if not several, of the most common allergens, including nuts, eggs, dairy and wheat. Because many are manufactured in the same facilities — then thrown together in the same household bowls — simply checking ingredient lists does not always guarantee safety.