Candy and Treats

It's that time of year when candy is on the brain of every child in the nation. Yes, ever doctor's nightmare and every dentists bad dream. But, the fact is, unless you celebrate nothing in October (Halloween, Fall Festivals, Harvest celebrations, etc), you are going to run into candy this week.

So, what's a parent to do when you don't want all that junk in your kids or at least want it to be healthier? What about if your child CAN'T have those items? It's just hard. This starts the 3 month food fest in our country and that means 3 months of reading labels even more than we ever did.

In our home we have found a few substitutes that are working for us. We have ground rules and we use candy and such as a treat, as it should be. My kids don't lay around in a sugar coma for 2 weeks after this weekend.

We let our kids go to the Harvest festival and then we did a candy trade. Here's what made our cut this year. Some are pretty straight forward, some are unique.

First up, carrots. My kids love carrots. I mean they LOVE them. But, I can't just give them a boring orange carrot in place of a Tootsie Roll. I found organic, non-GMO, heirloom baby carrots. I package those up and the kids get them as a treat. Afterall, they do cost more than their orange relatives so we don't get them very often.

I mean, come on, those are just pretty.

From here

Next up is cookies. Finding cookies that are safe for our sons and also taste good is hard. So far I haven't found an organic one, but I am still on the hunt. So, what do I choose? We like Cybele's Free to Eat Cookies.

They are soft, actually taste good, and are gluten free and top 8 allergen free. They are also vegan if that is a concern to your family.

From here

For a more traditional treat, we like Surf Sweet Organic Spooky Spiders. They are gummies that are not artificially flavored or colored. They are in the shape of, surprise, spiders and are a few different colors. My kids love them. They are big enough that they don't balk if I say they can have only one.

From here

Our last candy treat is from Glee Gum. Now, this is not organic and I use it as a rare treat. But, my kids know what Tootsie Pops are and this is as close as I could find to that. It's a sucker with gum inside. Gum, in our home, is a big deal because it's so very hard to find in a safe form. The only thing we have to watch out for is the green suckers. They are apple and our youngest can't have apples at all.

From here

That's what we do in our home. We use these items as a rare treat so I don't have to feel guilty about the sugar content and other ingredients that aren't awesome. But I also refuse to give up our basic standards just for a fun event. We have worked so hard to help our kids have healthy bodies We don't want to blow it in one evening.

Talk soon.