With Halloween quickly approaching, the time to plan for the big night is now! Creating a plan in advance will help you to make sure your child still has a fun time, while maintaining a healthy blood glucose level and staying in a safe range. Here are 3 helpful tips to make it a Halloween to remember, full of treats and no surprise tricks:

Create A Game Plan

Whether you’re accompanying your child on their adventures this Halloween or letting them go off with friends, plan out the night beforehand. It’s important to make sure that friends, neighbors, and temporary caregivers all know how to handle the abundance of snacks and excitement. Things they should know include:

• The amount of candy you are comfortable with your child consuming
• The symptoms of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and how to treat each
• How you plan to manage insulin dosing based on activity level, blood sugar readings and treats
• Any foods they should avoid particularly due to allergies or gluten intolerance
• A parent or guardian’s contact information

Keep Track of Activity & Count Carbs

While you’re running around with all the goblins and ghouls, it’s easy to get caught up in all the excitement. Make sure you closely monitor how your child is feeling throughout the evening; all the extra activity can lead to low blood sugars, so it’s important to stay on top of it from the beginning.

You should also try to monitor what all your child eats throughout the night. Although it may be hard to keep track, having a good estimate is better than none at all. From candy corn to bite-sized candy bars, it’s important to know accurate carb counts to administer the correct insulin dosage. Check out JDRF’s list of carbohydrate counts for popular Halloween candies for an easy reference guide.

You Don’t Need To Skip The Treats!

One of the best parts of Halloween is the candy. You may already be dreading the pile your child is going to bring home, but don’t fret just yet – we have a few fun tricks so they can still enjoy their treats without you worrying:

The “Switch Witch” – let your child pick out 5 pieces of candy they want to eat throughout the week and set it aside. When they get ready for bed, have them place the rest of their candy by their bedroom door (you don’t want any sneaky eaters in bed!). Once they fall asleep, the “switch witch” will come and switch out their bowl of candy for a new toy; this way, your child still gets to have some candy, but will be so excited over their new toy that they won’t be upset about not being able to overindulge.

The 3 Day Rule – let your child snack on their candy throughout the three days following Halloween (within limits). After the three days is up, simply throw the candy away or find somewhere you can donate the rest of it to. By letting them indulge in the sweets for a few days, they’ll still get to enjoy the holiday like everyone else but will begin to associate candy with special occasions and understand it’s not a regular occurrence.

The “Lows Goodie Bag” – as parents, it’s understandable that you turn into candy inspectors once your child gets home from trick-or-treating. While inspecting (and maybe saving a few pieces for yourself), set aside candy that would be good to use for a low blood sugar moment. Candies that feature dextrose as a key ingredient, such as Smarties, are great for quickly bringing up blood sugars; candies with higher fat content, like chocolate bars, are not best suited for treating lows.

From everyone at JDRF Northern Florida, we hope you have a happy and safe Halloween! For more helpful tips from JDRF on having a T1D scare-free Halloween, click here.