Halloween is when goblins, witches, and ghouls prowl the streets. However, if appropriate planning isn’t done, it might also be the period when children with diabetes experience elevated blood sugar levels. It’s a holiday that causes anxiety for many parents of children with diabetes. Not only are they concerned about their safety while trick-or-treating, but they are also concerned about the potential impact on their blood sugar regulation.
If you’re a parent of a child with diabetes and this is your first Halloween, you could find the holiday too much to handle and decide to forgo it altogether. However, it’s crucial to ensure that your children continue to feel like joyful, regular kids, and trick-or-treating is typically one of those things.
Children with diabetes can celebrate Halloween in the same way as other children. But in order to make it a successful journey and a fun day, parents should prepare ahead of time by ensuring that their child receives the appropriate amount of insulin to cover the carbohydrates in the sweets they eat by incorporating it into their daily meal plan.
Here’s how to create a foolproof, fruitful diabetes and Halloween game plan for your children.
Getting Ready for Halloween
To ensure that your child is aware of what to expect on Halloween, you should have a conversation with them beforehand about what the holiday will entail. In order to figure out what to do with the extra candy they will have, you can even enlist their assistance.
They enjoy participating in the planning process, and it’s a wonderful way to motivate them to keep their diabetes under control while on vacation. I know this because I’ve had problems in the past with my son trying to smuggle extra candy because he wants to overeat on the holiday, just like all his buddies. But as he grew older, having him participate in the planning really helped to suppress the impulse to steal.
Trick or Treating
For kids of all ages, trick or treating is one of the most thrilling aspects of Halloween. A child should not be forced to watch other people enjoy themselves just because they have a chronic illness like diabetes. Trick or treating typically entails a lot of walking, which can result in blood sugar drops from the extra activity and exercise.
This is an important thing to keep in mind. Giving them an additional protein-rich food can help prevent any potential lows brought on by the increased exertion. Setting a temporary basal drop like you do for all other activities can also be helpful if they are on an insulin pump.
Extra Candy: How Should It Be Used?
As everyone knows, some candies are a great low-treatment alternative. Therefore, we typically go through the candy and look for candies that are good for low treatments, like skittles and smarties, and set them aside to have as a backup supply.
Candy also makes an excellent tool for rewards, particularly for smaller kids. You can also consider putting your excess candy stash away and using it as a treat for good deeds and other things in lieu of giving your kids extra sweets.
Read Also: Is Carbonated Water a Healthy Drink for Those with Diabetes?
Including in the Mealtime
It’s a terrific idea to include the candy in your child’s mealtime routine. This enables kids to obtain extra nutrients with their meals while still indulging in the sugary joy of candy. You’ll find it much easier to include the candy into mealtimes if you know how many carbohydrates each portion of candy contains.
The majority of candy manufacturers provide nutritional information on their websites to assist you in determining the total amounts of carbohydrates if it is not stated on the packaging.
Grazing is something to be cautious about when it comes to trick-or-treating and the addition of sugar snacks. All children like snacking, but sadly, it can cause serious problems for children with diabetes when it comes to their blood sugar levels.
Grazing makes it seem as though they are eating continuously without a break, which tends to result in a considerably higher post-meal number for a longer amount of time. Because of this, you can guarantee that you provide the appropriate insulin bolus to compensate for the candy by include a small amount of it in your meal or snack.
You can make Halloween a fun holiday for your child by doing a variety of things for them. Another way to let your child feel normal and free to chose what they want is to host a party without candy. You may make them feel like part of the group and enjoy the celebration without having to take extra insulin if you provide them with “carb free” food.
Instead of worrying about the extra pleasures they could be missing out on, kids can be kept occupied and having a fantastic time with treats like coloring books, playdough, crayons, and other things.
So enjoy your Halloween, but watch out for consuming too many junk food items.
DiabetesCouncils Article | Reviewed by Dr. Sergii Vasyliuk MD on June 02, 2020
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