A Healthy Halloween

What does a crunchy health conscious mama do for Halloween? This has been a struggle for me. I have two precious kiddos. Stella Rae is my spunky two year old. She is curious and adventurous. Did I mention that she loves candy? She does. *sigh* I unfortunately did not get the one in a million child who hates sugar. Does that kid even exist? ;) I'm not a big fan of our kids getting candy, and to be honest, they really don't get it from us. On the rare occasion that Stella gets high fructose corn syrup, bleached sugar, caramel coloring nonsense...it's usually from a certain family member...who shall remain nameless. ;)

So what about Halloween? The Mecca of candy. What do we do then? I will tell you what WE do. I refuse to deprive my girl from the festivities of Halloween. This is her first year of really getting to enjoy it and so far she has had a blast. So, I let her enjoy her time, and at the end of the night I let her have TWO pieces of her favorite candy. And then, the candy "disappears".

In a perfect world, everyone would all have healthy snacks and treats for our kiddos on Halloween. This is just not reality, so we have to make guidelines.You might think I'm being paranoid or over protective...but do you know what sugar does? Here's the ugly truth...

Yes, I know these health issues come with extreme amounts of sugar...but sugar is in SO MUCH MORE than just candy. I'm not the Halloween police telling you that you are an awful person for giving your kids candy. It's a FUN night and I LOVE Halloween! But consider making it more about dressing up and other traditions than making candy the focal point. Think about making some yummy healthy treats with them like these super cute pumpkins and ghosts...

(You can make these out of Bananas and chocolate chips, so you still get a little bit of the good stuff ;) and the pumpkins are pealed oranges with a celery stick in the middle)

Here's another idea - take some fruit cups (we get no sugar added organic fruit cups) and draw a pumpkin face on them. Healthy and festive! :)

Here's a treat that will rock your child's immune system AND taste great! Ningxia Red gummies! Ningxia Red is LOADED with antioxidants and vitamins. Order some here

So, what are some ways that YOU make Halloween healthy? I'd love to hear your ideas!