Teal pumpkin

[vthokie]

How Many of you are doing this? Are you doing candy and offering an alternative for anyone who wants it or just a non candy item? What is your non candy thing? This neighborhood is huge and I love the ideA, I just don't know what I would do.

[jg183]

I'm giving out dum dums but not doing the teal pumpkin. My kid isn't going trick or treating because of allergies but eventually I think we will end up doing that one year

[TrudyCampbell]

I have no idea what this is.

[Deleted]

I don't k ow what real pumpkin is but we purposely keep our porch lights off. Our three dogs are insane and think that all kids need to be licked and it would be so stressful.

[ruby412]

I don't know what the teal pumpkin is, but a cute alternative treat could be jack-o-lantern bubbles.

[jenbelle]

Never heard of this. What is it?

[betsyray]

I have glow sticks and a bunch of candy that's not chocolate/peanut. Candy corn, sour patch kids, etc.

ETA the glow sticks were $10 for 100 on amazon.

[creamsiclechica]

Teal pumpkin is to indicate allergies in the home and that non food items will be given out, I'm pretty sure

[vthokie]

Teal pumpkin is painting a pumpkin to show that you offer something other than candy for allergy kids

[irishsara]

Oct 22, 2014 20:40:51 GMT -5 creamsiclechica said:

Teal pumpkin is to indicate allergies in the home and that non food items will be given out, I'm pretty sure

Yes. Or not necessarily allergies in the home, but an allergy safe home for kids who have allergies.

[EmmieB1025]

We will have allergy safe candy due to E's allergies. We are only taking him trick or treating at our neighbors that we know closely. They know about E's allergies and will have something safe for him.

[shmoo]

I don't know if we will have a teal pumpkin but we will have non-food options to hand out.

[lolaburns]

We are doing the teal pumpkin and I will have treats without the top 8 food allergens in them as well as some non food treats from the $1 bins at Target. We will be out trick or treating and I will have a sign indicating the items on this side of our porch by the teal pumpkin are for those with allergies. On the other side of the porch I will have a bowl of candy for the children without allergies.

[lolaburns]

For those interested in the teal pumpkin project here's an article on FARE's website ( the main non-profit for food allergy). www.foodallergy.org/teal-pumpkin-project

[Deleted]

We don't get many TOTers but I like the idea

[kkfeb04]

Oct 22, 2014 20:54:16 GMT -5 fadedscars said:

This is an awesome idea.


I so misread the title a couple times.

Lol. You thought of a certain someone didn't you.

[kkfeb04]

We aren't handing out candy this year. Gasp. We won't be in the neighborhood and the dog will freak out if we leave a basket on the porch. There aren't many kids in the neighborhood.

I do like the idea of this and hope to use it next year.

[kkfeb04]

Oct 22, 2014 21:46:37 GMT -5 fadedscars said:

Oct 22, 2014 21:34:20 GMT -5 kkfeb04 said:

Lol. You thought of a certain someone didn't you.

Nooooooo.



Yes.

Lol me too.

[onehitwonder]

I plan on doing this, but we don't get many trick or treaters. I am planning on giving out stickers, glow sticks, rings and bubbles.

[rxbeth]

I think Madison and I will try to paint a teal pumpkin this weekend!

Since I want to take her out trick or treating this year, we will likely only give out candy and non-candy alternative for a portion of the night.

I am dreading having to go through her candy and take away everything she can't have. She is pretty good that she knows if I say it has peanut, she can't have it. I'll buy some peanut free candy to trade her for any she gets that isn't safe.

[shevacc]

I hadn't heard of this but love the idea. We're not ToTing this year but maybe some year. We don't really get ToTers were we live, though.

[jg183]

Oct 22, 2014 22:47:18 GMT -5 @chelsmonster said:

I have never heard of this before!

Does it have to be all kind of allergy free candy? Like free of nuts, AND dairy, AND gluten, or whatnot? We have sour patch kids and gummy bears for the non chocolate lovers. I wonder if those would be considered allergy free.

ETA: now I want to get something non-candy. How does this work- do the kids know to get something non candy if there is a teal pumpkin out? Do they say "I'm allergy free, do you have anything for me?"

Ideally it's not candy so it would be free of the top 8 allergens
non-chocolate is good too but just keep it in a separate bowl bc of cross contamination of allergens!

[The Foozzler]

I always do 2 bowls anyway. One with chocolate and nuts, one with gummies. Usually I throw some mini playdoh tubs in also.

[dixeedeluxe]

We go to my sister's house. My mom and sister usually get a ton of candy, so I got some eye patches and some parachute skeletons from Targ. They always let kids pick from bowls themselves so I'll just have a seperate bowls for the non-candy treats and we'll offer both to each child so they don't have to single themselves out and so that other kids can have a non candy option.

[breezy8407]

We do a neighborhood Halloween party that requests "healthy treats" and also to plan for a nut allergy. I bought mini bags of pretzels for that.

For regular trick or treaters on Halloween, we just have candy. We don't get that many.

I like the idea though!

[mumegs]

Oct 22, 2014 20:49:55 GMT -5 lolaburns said:

We are doing the teal pumpkin and I will have treats without the top 8 food allergens in them as well as some non food treats from the $1 bins at Target. We will be out trick or treating and I will have a sign indicating the items on this side of our porch by the teal pumpkin are for those with allergies. On the other side of the porch I will have a bowl of candy for the children without allergies.

What kind of treats do you have without the top 8 allergens? I think this is such a cool idea would love to do it.

[bigapple]

Oct 22, 2014 21:47:16 GMT -5 kkfeb04 said:

Oct 22, 2014 21:46:37 GMT -5 fadedscars said:

Nooooooo.



Yes.

Lol me too.

Me three.  

[bigapple]

I love the idea, but I'm too lazy to get one pumpkin (ours already rotted and got tossed), let alone two and paint one.

I don't know if we get TOT'ers. The first year we were in the apartment, Halloween was derailed by Hurricane Sandy, and last year we went TOT'ing in another neighborhood. I doubt we'll be home this year to hand out candy.

[shevacc]

If you're going to participate, a non-food item really is best. I and many other nut allergy moms avoid all "manufactured in the same facility as nuts" foods. I spent several hours going through the entire Costco candy aisle at one point and I found facility warnings on gummies, pretzels, and many other non-chocolate non-nut candies. Often the individual packets don't have the full allergy warning so I pretty much won't give her any food I didn't buy or could inspect the original packaging.