Did everyone have a good Halloween?

My four children had a great time! Wet but great! My oldest is 11 so they have been saying "Trick or treat - no nuts please" for many years. I remember one guy last year said to his wife " hey honey this kid wants donuts" I quickly corrected him that my son had said NO NUTS not DONUTS. My husband told me that one lady this year said "I remembered you kids from last year so I only got things without nuts this year". Two houses did'nt have anything without nuts so the kids and my husband said thats OK have a Happy Halloween and they moved on to the next house.
Only a small amount of nut chocolate bars made it into their bags and they were in special pre-packaged bags of candy. I trade my kids for our candy and the next children that come to the door get all the nut chocolate bars - usually the big kids who are very greatful to take them off my hands.
My three year old was asking me this morning if her gum was "May contain?" This is when you know they GET IT.
Something that I found interesting this year was the quantity each child came home with. (We only go around a small area so they get less than a grocery bag full) My 5 year old blond daughter with the blue eyes that go right through you had more than anyone else. They went to the same amount of homes!? My 11 year old who is the biggest but also still a kid came away with the smallest loot. Yes she noticed!
Now to eat it all before Christmas!

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Karalot

Well yes we had a wonderful night. Chris of course stayed in and i took the two younger ones out. As you all are probably aware PA children really don't seem to select Halloween for their favorite holiday,or time of the year. Chris never really enjoyed it. But he has always had fun eating the special things we purchase him instead.
my 3 year old mananged to take a very tiny bit out of a snicker bar that he found and scared my whole entire family for a little while. I immediatly grabbed it and him running to the wash area,and yelling Chris stay away and don't try and help. Chris was so scared for his brother that he was going to give us a hand. As it turned out the snicker bar went into the garbage and my little one was totally fine and mad at me for scaring him. I would not say he is not allergic as of yet because that was a first for him. I will never offer it to him on account of NO NUTS in our house.My niece however enjoyed nut products my kids got after we left. We had a very fair trade. Now today is my birthday and it can not go any better than it is now. My kids are all healthy and Thank God. Claire

Last year my son got very few candy items that contained peanuts. This year it was like 90% of what he got. I was so surprised because he was getting full-sized candy bars.

When he came home we had a candy exchange for some little toys (like spider rings, tiny tops, etc). He wanted those so much that he started pulling out safe candy and trading me.

I gave out as much of the unsafe candy as I could, and then my husband took the rest to work.

He was really easy about "trading" his candy for toys. I hope next year goes as smoothly.

My son was only able to keep 2 lollypops and one box of stickers. Good thing I had a bucket of safe candy waiting for him at home. I brought all of the unsafe candy to work and it was gone before you could blink your eyes. He had a great Halloween, though. His first time trick or treating and he had a blast. My MIL gave him some cars that are like Matchbox cars but bigger and those were the big hit of the night. He even wanted to take them to bed with him!

well we were having a great night and then a neighbor gave my daughter a bag of treats and before I could turn around to inspect it she was eating choclate (in 2 seconds!) i yelled to her to spit it out and she got scared and swallowed. i check the candy and it was plain chocolate (with a my contain warning) but aslo in the bag were small chocolates with peanut butter centers. I gave her benadryl and called her allergist because i was not sure what she got into.He said to watch I was pretty sure she just ate the plain but what a scare(she ended up fine) These things set me back so far on my
ability to not want her out of my sight (and she needs to have some freedom) Her allergist was so nice (Dr Young-Peanut allergy answer book).

Yes, I've been to a lecture given by Dr. Young. He will also, hopefully, come speak at my son's pre school this year (he did last year). I like him very much - very nice guy.

Glad to hear your daughter is alright.

[This message has been edited by Heather2 (edited November 01, 2001).]

This had to be the best Halloween my DS has had! He got to trick or treat at his preschool to the other classes and then that night in our neighborhood. His school was great, the other parents know that he has a peanut allergy and even though I didn't ask them buy only peanut free candy they ALL did!
He was very excited that he could actually keep all his candy! What he got in the neighborhood was a different story, almost every bit of it was unsafe, but he could care less! My neighbor dresses up each year and plays Candy witch for us. I give her a toy earlier in the week and she comes over and he pays for the toy by giving the witch all the candy he has collected from trick or treat. We put it in a special bag and tie it up so no one gets into it. He was so excited that he told every house we went to that the candy was for the witch, after 30 minutes of trick or treating he could barely wait to give up what he had gotten so he could get the toy! He had been asking for a rescue hero and I had picked up a few when they were buy one get one free at Toys R Us for presents.

hALLOWEEN COULD BE A SCARY TIME. YES A PUN WAS INTENDED. My #.6 yr old is in pre-school, the teacher went to great lenghts to ensure his safety. we were grateful, I still inspected the snack plate before he eat. She keeps an epi-pin in the classroom. In the begining of the school year, I gave her an epi-pin trainer and 3 atricles to read for her and the aids. Stephen had a good time.
However the candy bag they went home with contained 2 pieces of chocalate candy that I know states 'may contain', Nestle's crunch and 3muskerteers bar. So my lession was I need to always be checking no matter what, even with a sensitive teacher.

Our DD had a great time! We had pretty much "non food" party at preschool except for all the safe snacks which I buy there, and Tootsie Pops that I bought. I put together 51 gift hats filled with little toys for all the kids that I ordered from Oriental Trading Co. and U.S. Toys. Fun was had by all. I also sent non-food gifts to the area businesses where they trick or treated. They loved the jumping frogs and rings. They did not miss the candy at all.

T o T was great too! We only went to 7 houses. I dropped off non food gift bags to our neighbors/friends before we went out. Our DD was SO happy with all the little gifts! She had a blast. One of our neighbors bought her a play-dough cat/dog set and a tiny-tiny doll house. How wonderful. Our DD could not wait to play with them. Other neighbors added to our gift bags with stickers, money and key rings and other non-food items. Lots of hugs too!

A few of our neighbors stopped over with their kids to share a glass of wine with us at the end of the night. They left their kids baskets outside, and washed their hands

We had a great, safe Halloween.

My 6 y.o. PA son had a Halloween party in his classroom, and the teacher, room mother and I coordinated it so everything was peanut/nut free with the exception of the candy corn and pumpkin-shaped candy-corn like candies (did that make any sense whatsoever? [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/wink.gif[/img] ) So my son could eat everything everyone else ate with that small limitation.

Then when my husband took the boys out trick-or-treating, I asked everyone to try to avoid anything obviously peanutty (Reese's, for example) with a polite, "No thanks, I'm allergic to peanuts", but not to worry about "hidden" nuts, since we'd check the candy at home. They only went along our street, and only encountered one house giving out Reese's (a doctor's house, no less!). Apparently, my kids went into a somewhat hysterical version of the prepared speech [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/biggrin.gif[/img], and the candy-giver went back into his house and returned with Junior Mints for my kids. A perfect alternative for us!

Once we got home, I swapped out all the "may contain" and "manufactured in" and the lone Snickers bar for the safe Nestle Canada candy our friend "teacher" had sent from Canada. The kids were so happy. They absolutely were in heaven with the KitKats and the Smarties (which they accepted as peanut-free M&Ms, not noticing the taste difference).

And as a bonus, neither kid liked the Canadian "Coffee Crisps", so I get to eat them all myself!! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/biggrin.gif[/img] So my Halloween was pretty great, too.

Debbie

I noticed this Halloween (in Mississauga anyway at my brother's house) that the majority of candy that my nephews received was peanut-free. Their loot bag was filled with Coffee Crisp, Aero, Smarties and Kit Kat, with some Rockets are Starburst.

For non-safe candy, there were only 2 Twix, no Mars, 1 Snickers, 2 Reese, 1 Dairy Milk, and 1 Caramilk. Not sure why there was so much peanut-free product given out this year (in past years there would be more Mars & Cadbury & Hershey/Reese products).

Maybe it is since Costco, Dominion A&P, etc were selling those big 100-pack of Nestle bars at good prices. So everyone bought them? Good strategy for Nestle to have those 100-pack boxes so prevelant (too bad the Crunch is not safe though)

This is the first year in our new home. We have gotten to know most of the people on our street and discovered that there is another PA child a few doors down. What a pleasure it was to go trick or treating! People acknowledged that they had "safe candy" for Jonathan, and quickly rembered when I reminded those that forgot. I didn't think much of this until we went trick or treating again at my girlfriends house the next day. I knew my son would love to put his Bob the Builder costume on again and trick or treat with his litte friend, but didn't realize how fortunate we were to have such good neighbors. We only went to maybe 10 houses, and my son came home with a pumpkin head full of candy. I spent the drive home picking out the unsafe stuff. 2/3 of it was dangerous. I told people of his allergy, but at times I felt like I was talking to a brick wall. Eventually, I gave up. My son didn't need the candy and was happy with the little he got. On the other hand, the people at my work loved the goodies I brought in the next day!

I had a very different experience with Jesse this year on Hallowe'en. Last year, I believe I described under a similar question in Living with PA about how he would go up to the door and say "No peanuts please" and people would go out of their way to provide an alternative.

This year, he didn't say that. He simply said trick or treat. It was as if he didn't want to draw attention to himself (which I have also discussed here). So, fine, he decided he didn't want to say "no peanuts please" this year.

On the way home, he started to become a bit (not terribly angry) about what he thought was the number of peanut products he had received in all of his treats. He said "even So and So who knows I'm allergic to peanuts gave me something with peanuts in it". I was quite surprised.

When we got home, we do what we always do. The kids dump out their buckets on the table and are not allowed to touch a thing. My DH stands beside me with a bag for the peanut product or not clearly labeled candy. I go through and put the "safe" candy in the buckets.

As it turned out, I would have to say that MAYBE one quarter of what they received was unsafe for them to eat (and as last year, I did NOT eat the "may contain" mini Caramilk! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/tongue.gif[/img] ). I showed Jesse this and showed him how much candy he had received that was "safe".
I told him that I explained why he may feel angry but that in this particular instance he had actually been wrong.

I must say that as far as picking out the blatant peanut products, that's fairly easy to do, they're so "out there". I had some thing that was like a Reese's pb cup but like pb on a stick or something gross like that.
But by far, I would say that any candy that is lost is because it isn't labeled what I consider properly.

It was interesting to see how Jesse had changed this year. Last year, he was like river's child and saying "no peanuts", this year he was very different.

Both munchkins did have a good time though.
For a little girl who two years ago (and maybe even last year) had to be dragged up to doors, my 4 year old was running faster than her brother up to doors and calling "let's go here"! It was really comical. I had a Princess (in purple, of course) and a Ninja Warrior!

Also, as soon as we've sorted out the stuff we don't want, we do take it to a neighbour.
I want it out of the house as quickly as possible!

Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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[img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/mad.gif[/img] First of all, I did two posts under my regular UserName and then when to post this and found my UserName had blipped out on me, so that's why I'm in here under my alias. Hopefully, I was able to save my post! AH!

I had a very different experience with Jesse this year on Hallowe'en.
Last year, I believe I described under a similar question in Living with
PA about how he would go up to the door and say "No peanuts please"
and
people would go out of their way to provide an alternative.

This year, he didn't say that. He simply said trick or treat. It was
as if he didn't want to draw attention to himself (which I have also
discussed here). So, fine, he decided he didn't want to say "no peanuts
please" this year.

On the way home, he started to become a bit (not terribly angry) about
what he thought was the number of peanut products he had received in all
of his treats. He said "even So and So who knows I'm allergic to
peanuts gave me something with peanuts in it". I was quite surprised.

When we got home, we do what we always do. The kids dump out their
buckets on the table and are not allowed to touch a thing. My DH stands
beside me with a bag for the peanut product or not clearly labeled
candy. I go through and put the "safe" candy in the buckets.

As it turned out, I would have to say that MAYBE one quarter of what
they received was unsafe for them to eat (and as last year, I did NOT
eat the "may contain" mini Caramilk! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/tongue.gif[/img] ). I showed Jesse this and
showed him how much candy he had received that was "safe".
I told him that I explained why he may feel angry but that in this
particular instance he had actually been wrong.

I must say that as far as picking out the blatant peanut products,
that's fairly easy to do, they're so "out there". I had some thing
that
was like a Reese's pb cup but like pb on a stick or something gross like
that.
But by far, I would say that any candy that is lost is because it isn't
labeled what I consider properly.

It was interesting to see how Jesse had changed this year. Last year,
he was like river's child and saying "no peanuts", this year he was
very
different.

Both munchkins did have a good time though.
For a little girl who two years ago (and maybe even last year) had to be
dragged up to doors, my 4 year old was running faster than her brother
up to doors and calling "let's go here"! It was really comical. I
had
a Princess (in purple, of course) and a Ninja Warrior!

Also, as soon as we've sorted out the stuff we don't want, we do take it
to a neighbour.
I want it out of the house as quickly as possible!

Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

I've tried to discourage this, but I have to admit I get a kick out of it. My (5 yr old )Jesse says "Trick or Treat" and as they are handing him his treat he informs them "If you give me anything with peanuts in it, it will kill me. Unless my daddy gets me to the hospital in 3 minutes". (I'm not sure where the 3 minutes came from.) Everyone is VERY careful about what they give him. Of course, he knows that Dad has to check it out before he indulges.

I completely removed the risk. We live on a small cul de sac and my child is only 3. So I went around to each of the houses and gave them each a small goody bag which I filled with safe items and asked them to keep it away from any peanuts or peanut products. When we came around they just dropped the small bag into my son's bag.

Stress free Halloween!

Barb

Hi Dad!

My husband is from Charlotte, NC and we travel there on holidays. I was wondering if you knew of any restaurants that we should avoid. Thanks!