Treats...or Tricks?

You’ve spent weeks, possibly months perfecting your Halloween costume, and visions of candy bars and lollipops are swimming around in your head. It’s almost Halloween! While it may be a few weeks off, those gigantic bags of candy are already on store shelves, tempting kids and adults alike. What will you buy this year? Are there healthy alternatives?

Getting a piece of fruit is mildly disappointing (OK, majorly dissapointing), but who says you have to give out food at all? In a CNN article, Lisa Bruno recalls how overweight some trick-or-treaters looked to her one year and it frightened her more than the costumes! She began to hand out small toys in lieu of candy. With the obesity epidemic hitting kids hard, it’s worth tweaking the candy-heavy tradition of Halloween and brainstorming some new ideas.
 
One mom allows her kids to eat whatever treats they want that night, but afterwards the “switch witch” will exchange any amount of candy they decide on for toys. Some families even “buy back” the candy, giving their kids a nickel or dime per piece and then taking the candy to work. All in all, telling your kids they just can’t have any candy on Halloween will ultimately backfire when they are surrounded by so many others going wild.

Do you have any ideas to curb the candy intake come October 31?