For most moms, healthy and Halloween don’t go together when the trick-or-treating starts. If you cringe when you think about all that candy but don’t want to put a damper on the kid’s excitement, here are a few tips to manage the sugar consumption, spread out the treats and avoid cavities!
- Sort and Store: Every Halloween night after the candy frenzy is over, I go through the treat bags and sort through it all. Using small plastic bags, I portion off each child’s treats and put them in the freezer to enjoy at a later date. I also take out any of the popular sweets that can double as baking ingredients (see the next tip).
- Use candy for baking: Popular candies and chocolates like M&M’s, Hershey bars, Snickers and Heath bars also make terrific baking ingredients. With Thanksgiving and the holiday season so close on the heels of Halloween, those excess Hershey and Snicker bars, M & Ms and other treats can be used for holiday baking. You’ll be using up the leftover Halloween candy and saving money on the holiday baked goods.
- Brush Your Teeth: I love the toothbrushes that teach children how long to brush their teeth. I found a great product called FireFly Ready Go Brush. Kids will love these sparkly, fun toothbrushes with characters like Angry Birds, Barbie and Spiderman. These brushes have a light up system of red, yellow, green to teach children the proper length of time to brush teeth. A suction cup at the bottom keeps it upright on the bathroom counter. We received an Angry Birds toothbrush to try; it’s too cute! Interestingly enough, it taught a few of us in the office that it takes a lot longer to brush teeth than we thought! Find them at Target, Kroger, Meijer, Drugstore.com and Amazon.com.
