Top Tips for a Diabetes-Friendly Halloween: Enjoy the Festivities Guilt-Free!

Between parties and trick-or-treating, Halloween often involves lots of sugar. This can be daunting for people with diabetes who want to keep their blood sugar levels under control. However, with the right planning it doesn’t have to be. If you or a child has diabetes, make sure to enjoy these treats in moderation and celebrate the spooky holiday without your glucose levels soaring. 

We have compiled a few tips to help ensure you can still enjoy October 31st!

1. Plan Ahead - Discuss your Halloween plans in advance with your child so they know what to expect. By creating some general rules, while involving them in the decisions as much as possible. Having a plan for the day can help ease anxieties around the events. 

2. Have activities that don’t involve food - By having different activities for the day that don’t involve food, it will take the focus off candy and sweets. Try arts and crafts projects, Halloween movies or pumpkin carving to create memories that don’t only involve food. 

3. Avoid snacking on lollies and candy until home - If you’re going trick-or-treating, try to eat well during the day so that the evening begins with stable blood sugar levels. By waiting until home to snack, you can dose insulin correctly and manage your portions better. 

4. Portion your treats - By limiting the number of treats you have and packing them into portions you can keep them aside and use them to treat future lows. This works best with individually packed lollies so you know the exact serving size.

5. Only keep your favourite candy - Once you or your child have selected a few of their favourite treats, get rid of the rest to avoid snacking on them later. This not only helps with moderating carbohydrates and insulin but also lets them keep lollies to have later in the week. 

6. Make a trade - Children may want to trade their pieces of candy for something else not food-related. This could be a movie ticket, a new toy, a gift card or something else of value to help them redefine the word ‘treat’.

It’s important to remember that even with diabetes, all holidays can still be fun. Enjoy treats in moderation, while keeping in mind that there is more to October 31st than sweets. Enjoy the holiday with friends and family and plan ahead so you don’t need to focus on what you can and cannot eat.