72 // How to sort Halloween candy with kids
How to sort your kids Halloween candy
What to keep (without feeling like a food cop)
Your kids come home from trick-or-treating, they have a mound of candy, and your mom-brain instantly starts to try to dissect what to do. You want them to have a healthy relationship with all foods - Halloween candy included. But the indecision of how much candy they can have on Halloween, in the days after, and how to taper their candy intake so they don't have an ongoing sugar high has historically caused both you and them stress.
In this episode, we chat about:
Your action plan for once you and your kids get home with all of the Halloween candy
How to help your child self-regulate after trick-or-treating
A simple approach to step in as a safety inspector instead of a food cop
The three-part framework to lead your kids through when deciding what candy to keep (and giveaway)
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] Hi, and happy Halloween almost. I'm excited to have you listening in today because we are gonna be talking about what happens on Halloween night or whenever it is that you and your kids come home from trick or treating with what often feels like a lot of candy, because I know as parents, we may have fond memories of how we handled kind of that dumping out and sorting of our Halloween candy when we were kids.
[00:00:23] I know for my own family, I'm one of two. I'm the youngest and. Brother who's two years older and in our family, we didn't have a ton of places to trick or treat, but it was still a big deal when we kind of graduated from the traditional Halloween bucket to being able to like use a pillow case and the corresponding amount of candy that that could hold.
[00:00:42] This was as we got a little bit older and we'd often go trick or treating with friends in other neighborhoods and things like that. Even in the early days of being a kid in trick or treating, I can still remember that process of when we would come home and dump out all the candy and look at it all and trade it between my brother and.
[00:00:59] so that we could kind of s stock our stash with what were our most favorite candies. And oftentimes we knew what my mom's favorites were. You know, she would eat the junior mints and the mounds, or the almond Joys, which thankfully were not ones that ne either of my brother or I enjoyed. But we would begin kind of prioritizing which ones do we really enjoy and which ones could we definitely live without, or which ones would someone.
[00:01:24] Enjoy more than us. Fortunately, since my brother and I didn't have any food allergies, this was a really fun and lighthearted process for us, and it relied exclusively on our taste preferences. And as we were older, there wasn't even, you know, a concern of things like choking hazards in our preferred sweets and treats.
[00:01:42] But I know for many of you, particularly those of you with younger kids who are still trying to help shape the patterns and the routines and the habits and the traditions that your family has around holidays like h. I want this episode to help you navigate how you can come up with that keep versus giveaway pile for Halloween candy with your kids.
[00:02:02] So to do this, we're gonna talk through some considerations of what I want you to be considering with your kids when it comes to what candy to keep. And then in the episode that airs on Wednesday, episode 74, we are gonna go over what might validate giving candy away and some of the ways that your family might choose to do.
[00:02:21] But for today's episode, we are gonna focus on how to help your child come up with that keep pile of their Halloween candy.
[00:02:33] Hey mama, I'm Ashley and welcome to the Veggies and Virtue Podcast. In this podcast, you will find simple menu ideas, kitchen organizational systems spelled out for mom life, and feeding tips and tricks that are both evidence based in grace. I believe that you can find flexibility when it comes to feeding your family so that you can feel calm, capable, and connected in the kitchen.
[00:02:52] As a registered dietician and Christian mom of three myself, I want you to break free from the mealtime battles and to feel equipped while feeding your kids all day long. Pull up a stool at my kitchen counter and let me pour you a cup of coffee and say a quick prayer for you. It's time to chat about the meal times, messes moments, and ministry of motherhood.
[00:03:13] So often I have parents asking me how much kid candy can our kids have, and I've covered this in a lot of the episodes we've already addressed in this October. On Halloween candy, our relationships with foods like sweets and treats. But I see when it comes to the night of Halloween, and if we'd allowed our children to already eat their fill and enjoy as much as they feel is quote unquote enough for their bodies of candy, then becomes that process where we're instantly, as parents beginning to think about how do we taper, How do we begin to scale back their candy consumption in a way that.
[00:03:50] Moderate or what's often too referred to as balanced. And sometimes what we can fall into the trap of doing is thinking that we need to consolidate or rather restrict the amount of candy our kids keep to one little bag. And you can define little as little as you want it to be, especially if that's something that maybe you have done in your home.
[00:04:09] Now, if it's worked okay for you, then by all means, do what works. Particularly if you're someone who. Smaller kids, particularly those under the age of two who you're still trying to limit the amount of added sugar to, it's going to take you a lot longer to work your way through incorporating foods like candy in their diet when you are limiting their exposure to these foods.
[00:04:32] However, I know in family use like my own and you know, having the age children I do, it doesn't always work with their age nor their feeding temperament for me to use this approach. So in attempts to foster a responsive feeding style and ultimately help our kids to develop that muscle of intuitive eating, that they know how to flex in situations like Halloween where there is an abundance of candy around them.
[00:04:59] What we don't wanna be doing is restricting for this sake of restricting because either we feel uncomfortable about it or we just feel insecure. Lack the confidence in knowing how to handle that. So if that's you, make sure that you've gone through the episodes from this series because there's a lot of different things touching on your relationship with food and how that trickles down to foster the type of relationship with food that your child has.
[00:05:25] And one of the misconceptions that we can often have is that if something isn't available, I won't eat it. And there is validity and there is a lot of research out there to show that there is merit to out of sight, out of. And as someone who considers myself to have a pretty balanced, healthy appreciation for intuitive eating and relationship with all foods, which has taken years, if not decades, to create and establish.
[00:05:52] I know for myself, if I see peanut butter m and ms on the counter, I'm gonna want to eat them. But do I rarely ever think about peanut butter, her m and mss if they're not right in front of me? No, I. If they're there, they are something that I do really enjoy. I would put them as one of my top favorite candies.
[00:06:08] However, I don't need them always in view. And so there's a balance between being wise and discerning of what candies we keep and how and when we offer them. And just limiting the amount of Halloween candy that we keep around because we don't trust ourselves or our kids around it. And so really what we wanna be thinking of when we think of keeping versus giving away.
[00:06:32] Halloween Candy Stash is we don't wanna be reinforcing a scarcity approach because what we know in the research to be true is that when there's a sense of scarcity, so much so that a certain food feels extra special or forbidden, or a child feels as though we're trying to control their intake and their access to foods like candy, we can create the opposite of our intended.
[00:06:59] Of course, we're wanting to shape healthy habits, and we're wanting them to eat these foods in balance and in proportion to the rest of the nourishing foods that we're offering our kids. However, being excessively restrictive of this can often backfire, so that's why on today's episode I wanna walk you through some productive, proactive approaches for what to consider and how to approach what candy you keep versus which ones you give.
[00:07:24] So walk through with me the scenario of Halloween night or a stereotypical situation for Halloween night. As I've mentioned in former episodes, we have a lot of kids coming to our neighborhood, and so trick or treating lasts a lot longer. And quite honestly, we go to a lot more houses than I would probably choose for my kids if we were trying to upfront.
[00:07:45] Reduce some of the amount of candy coming home. So if you don't want a big pillowcase sack of Halloween candy coming home, you can think front about how you just reduce the quantity of candy that comes back. First and foremost, think about when your kids are little and they're just starting trickier treating and they're maybe two years old.
[00:08:03] You just let them go to a few target houses that you know are safe, that you know the people who your child will recognize them, and it gives them the exposure and the opportunity to the fun of the holiday. Without the overwhelming amount of candy. So that is an approach front, but regardless of how many houses your family chooses, is to trick or treat at.
[00:08:21] I think this approach of how we can handle that return home and that transition to this candy now being in our home is something that can apply to anyone, especially kids who are younger and who are still trick or treating within our supervision. And as I do. You can start thinking very quickly about if you're doing this young, how this builds some of the skills for self-efficacy for our kids to do this as they be get older and they're a little bit more independent and sorting through their candy and trick or treating and things like that on their own.
[00:08:53] But if you're tuning and you already have older kids, you can just coach them through, Hey, let's make sure that you're doing. After you come home from trick or treating, so don't feel as though you've missed the opportunity. Any of these things can be implemented and adapted to fit your child's age and stage.
[00:09:09] So first and foremost, I want us to think about as they come home, from Trick or Treating. I think one of the best things for us to first do is make sure that they just get comfortable, cozy, and ready to check out their candy and our house. Often what I like to reinforce is, Let's go wash hands first and foremost.
[00:09:25] It may be that if they're hot and sweaty from running around in a heavy costume, that they take a quick bath and we put on some fresh PJs. That just kind of resets the stage, gets us, you know, comfortable and settled because after. We're going to be going to bed. I know in our house sometimes we do have to delay this process to the next day so that we have ample time to go through this.
[00:09:45] So this process doesn't necessarily have to happen the night of, but you need to kind of read the situation on the timing in your family dynamics on if you can do it that that night, or if your kids can wait until the next day. But if you're doing it the night, consider basically getting them ready for bed outside of brushing their teeth, because again, on Halloween, I think it's important to let them have access to unlimited amounts of candy because we want to be reinforcing that self-regulation that they can tune in with their bodies.
[00:10:14] Then as they transition back from either the bathtub or their bedroom or wherever they might have been changing or having you help them. Bring them back into the kitchen. I think this helps reinforce that candy stays in the kitchen just from a safety perspective and a sanitation perspective. But then you may consider offering them something like water, a cup of milk, see if they want a banana or a granola bar or something.
[00:10:35] That's a preferred snack to just begin kind of having as they sit there, because this is going to give you, just buy you a couple minutes for you to do a little candy inspection. Now hear me out. This is not me telling you to go be the food. So put down the handcuffs and take off the police cap because that's not what you're doing here.
[00:10:55] Instead, whether visually in your brain or if you want to actually do it for your child, put on some fun dress up glasses that you maybe have in the Halloween costume bin and tell your kids that you need to quickly inspect the candy to make sure it's safe for them. I encourage that parents do this in front of their kids, not say, Well, one parent's bathing the.
[00:11:14] You're maybe down in the kitchen already doing this because as our kids maybe have questions or as they get older or depending on their comfort level with candy and how tight of a grip they feel on that stash they just brought home, we wanna make sure that we are teaming up with them and that they see that we are here fully to support them and not to play food cop.
[00:11:32] We are not taking their candy away, but instead we are removing any candy that might be of concern, unsafe or not appropriate for them for a variety of reasons. So thinking through things like if your child has food allergies or intolerances, this is an obvious one that definitely needs to be addressed before the child is handling their candy stash.
[00:11:53] So you wanna look through and make sure that you're eliminating anything that is an allergen and earned intolerance so that you're already separating that out before they begin handling their. Second, depending on the age of your child, consider what choking hazards there might be. I can incl include a list in the show notes, but you wanna be thinking of hard, circular candy specifically, which is a lot of Halloween candy that's out there that could be stuck in your child's windpipe if they don't have the feeding skills to manage that in their mouth.
[00:12:22] So thinking about things like gob stoppers or skit. Or bubble gum balls and some of these round hard objects that some kids will not know how to safely and appropriately eat. You wanna go ahead and remove those and as I'll mention in the giveaway episode that comes out on Wednesday, there's a lot of things you can still do with these ones, but make sure that you're eliminating it for your child's safety.
[00:12:46] Additionally, thinking about things like any opened package, this is something that, again, while you know if food allergies isn't something your child. And as they get older, choking hazards isn't something that they really have to think about. We do wanna teach our kids to be aware of the packaging and this overall safety of this Halloween candy because that's something that is consistent across time.
[00:13:09] So looking for things like any opened packages or anything that just looks like a concerning substance without wanting to fear monger, I have heard some just really horrible. Situations lately with you know, fentanyl and Halloween candy and some different things like that, that as parents we do need to be aware of.
[00:13:26] And as much as we want to just look at the sweet innocence of Halloween that our kids get to enjoy, especially as they're young, we do need to raise up kids who are considerate of some of the real fears and threats that are out there that could pose safety concern. . So making sure to just do a quick check of that.
[00:13:44] Make it fun, make it inviting, you know, be engaged with your child to show them what you're looking for so that they can see, this is my mom or dad's job. They are helping to keep me safe. These are the things they look for. So that even when you're not there, discerning those things for them, either because you're physically not present or.
[00:14:02] As they get older, they just begin to do this more independently. They're already well aware of the things that you would be screening out for their safety. So once you've made their piles and it's safe and ready for them to have a chance to take a peek at, they've had a chance to either rehydrate and or re refuel.
[00:14:21] then we wanna let them go ahead and sit down and begin sorting through their stash. For kids, this is often so fun, and again, something we often do the day after Halloween, since it's often really late on Halloween night, my kids know I'm not taking the candy. They know I'm not doing anything with it that night that we will have ample time to really enjoy the process of sorting it.
[00:14:41] It's not a hustle to finish first. So what you can do here is you can encourage your child to start sorting by. This is a great activity for any age child, but especially as your children are younger and they're kind of learning how to sort things into categories and groups, you can begin stacking the Skittles and the Snickers and the Reese peanut butter cups into categories of that like candy.
[00:15:04] Then what I want you to think about doing is sorting the candy into my love it, like it, learning it framework. If your family isn't using, love it, like it, learning it, yet, this is a great opportunity to begin helping your children understand. How there's foods that we love and that we preferentially eat.
[00:15:21] There's also foods that we like and we could kind of give or take, but they're not the ones that we feel like we couldn't live without. And then there's those foods that we're still learning. This might be in the case of candy, something that they've never tried before or that they're just not really sure was really their thing.
[00:15:36] And so if this is happening on Halloween or immediately after h. , I would invite you to invite your child to taste, test some of these and make it again, a fun food explorer type opportunity where they can open it, they can taste, test these foods, they can see do they like it, and they can really tune in to their enjoyment level with these given foods.
[00:15:58] While also knowing they have complete freedom to spit it out and to politely say, That's not my favorite. I'm still learning to like that. No thank you. So begin categorizing these things into, or all of the CA candy options that they have into these three categories. Then as a family, begin deciding on if and how you want to allow trading.
[00:16:20] This is rather simple when you see a person loves these or these are the most preferred candies pile. These are the ones that they like and may be more inclined to trade, and these are the ones that they're still learning or the least preferred candies. And using these three groups helps our child to know which candies they prioritize most, that they enjoy most, that they get the most satisfaction from eating, and which ones are their least favorite that maybe someone else enjoys more than them.
[00:16:47] Helping reinforce it in this way helps our kids to see that while they may not enjoy it, someone else. And this is going to foster that intuitive eating approach and reinforce their ability to gain skills in intuitive eating where they realize their enjoyment level with different foods and how different people enjoy different foods in different ways.
[00:17:10] So consider if you want letting, oh, if you want to let your kids trade, or how you wanna go about that, to kind of get them to their final batch of Halloween candy that they have to work. then at this point, I want you to think about how many love it options your child has. Again, as I said at the beginning, we don't wanna be restricting simply for the sake of restricting.
[00:17:32] That said, we also, none of us really wanna have an excessive amount of Halloween candy in our house. So knowing the space that you have and your child's feeding temperament and what would feel like enough, again, we've talked about this on previous episodes, that enough is often dictated by the child, not necessarily by a quantitative measure.
[00:17:50] Number of pieces of candy. So give your child, you know, a Ziploc bag or some sort of container that they can store their candy in, that has their name on it, that they know this is where their candy will be kept. The size of that bag or container is up to you, but we want them to put those candies that they truly enjoy.
[00:18:08] Those love it food candies in this container for them to keep. Then as a family, you might. All the remaining like it and learning it candy that your child has decided that they don't want in their candy stash or that hasn't been traded amongst family members, and put it in another, say, gallon size ziplock or grocery bag or a large container so that you can consider what you're going to do with that as a giveaway option that, again, all dress in the upcoming episode on Wednesday, but for the candy that your child wishes to keep, I want you to go ahead and set your expectation on the fact.
[00:18:46] This is their favorite of most favorite candy. So we as parents should expect that this is going to backen their attention for the next few days, and it's normal for them to want to request it often, but that's also why I've shared in advance of this episode how as a family you can begin discussing.
[00:19:04] What, when and where candy will be available. It might be an available unlimited at the occasional snack time with say a cup of milk or another fruit or something as a snack on the side. And other times it might just be that everyone at the table is offered a piece of candy. With the meal, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
[00:19:23] So your family is going to come up with what feels fitting for you in terms of kind of that gradual taper off. But I want you to go ahead and understand that it's important to help them self-regulate their consumption of these candies while still maintaining that they have opportunities to increase access.
[00:19:39] So we're not looking to restrict the amount or restrict the access as the means to reinforce eating less. Instead, what we want to be doing is often increasing. And increasing the availability of it so that they see this is not a scarcity thing. This is not a special food that they need to covet because they're already going to be interested in it.
[00:19:59] They're already going to be excited about it. And the more we forbid this, the more it does begin feeling like they forbidden fruit that they can become more mentally preoccupied with. So listen to the other episodes that I've shared before. I talk about how you can transition through the Halloween holiday.
[00:20:15] How you can help your child manage their candy intake and how they can truly find joy in that which they choose to keep.
