Helpful Parenting Tips For Halloween

In the Halloween episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 that aired on October 31 1991, Mrs. Walsh offers raisins to the trick-or-treating kids knocking on her door. To her children’s clear embarrassment, she adds that raisins are the candies of mother nature. Twenty-five years later, in our health-conscious society, such an approach to Halloween may not be as absurd as a quarter of a century ago.

Here are a few quick and helpful tips for navigating this sweet-centric holiday:
1) Use the skills you have learned by feeding your children and teaching them about the food pyramid to your advantage.

You are used to planning meals for your children—what they eat, when they eat, and where they eat. Do not forget that Halloween is no exception to this! Not all of your rules have to go out the door on this holiday.

2) If you have younger children, provide smaller baskets for trick or treating.

With smaller baskets, your child can still feel like he/she is participating fully in the Halloween fun while you slyly limit their candy consumption in an easy way!

3) Ration their candy throughout the following months.

Younger children may not be able to or want to pace themselves while consuming their Halloween treats. Therefore, it is a good idea for you to be in control of their candy and to allow them to consume it in smaller and more manageable amounts.

4) If you have older children, take their opinions into account and use this as an opportunity to speak about healthy eating habits.

Older children are more likely to understand the importance of maintaining a balanced diet and therefore will be easier to reason with. Also, as your child ages and gains more independence, it is important to recognize this and allow them to take part in decisions that affect them. In the future, they will remember and prefer these decisions if they helped make them!

5) Lastly, enjoy the non-food parts of the holiday and most importantly—have fun!

Hope you enjoyed these sweet solutions to one of the sweetest holidays!

Researchers at Stanford University are now recruiting mothers with histories of eating disorders whose children are between 1-5 years old, to a new parenting program study. Parents who are interested in this program are invited to contact her at shiris@stanford.edu or 650-497-4949 for more information.