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Halloween is coming up very soon, and if you’re like me you’re looking forward to lots of treats and hopefully spending some time with some ghouls and goblins in your life!
Whether that’s handing candy out at your door, going to Halloween parties, or even just sending your kids off to a school event, theres a lot going on around this fun holiday.
I know that for a lot of us adults, Halloween isn’t always a huge deal. Maybe here and there we sneak a few bites of candy, but for kids, it’s really important to know what’s safe and what’s not.
So if you have kids that need gluten and dairy-free treats, I’m hoping to help you out with today’s post.
In this all-things-Halloween post, I want to share with you how to navigate your Halloween festivities while eating gluten-free and dairy-free. Plus I’ll share with you a few tips and a quick list of gluten and dairy-free safe Halloween treats.
But first, let’s go through a few tips for navigating a gluten and dairy-free diet for this spooky holiday!
Let’s get spooky, shall we??
7 Tips for a Gluten-free Dairy-free Halloween
1. Check and re-check candy before eating.
The list of gluten and dairy-free candy options for Halloween in this blog post is a handy resource so you know top of mind that these treats have been researched, but others you may want to do some ingredient research before diving in.
It’s always a good idea to have a shortlist of brands of candy that you trust to be gluten and dairy-free to check against before digging in (or letting your kids dig in).
Comparing the candy that you get while trick or treating (or while shopping) against the list will help you narrow down the choices for what you (or your kiddos) can eat while sticking with this diet.
2. Learn about the Teal Pumpkin project.
This is a neat way to make sure that you and/or your child has allergy-friendly treats. You can set out your own teal pumpkin to let other kids know that your house has safe treats too. Click here to learn more.
A teal pumpkin at someone else’s house indicates that you can go there for treats without the top 8 allergens – including gluten and dairy. A teal pumpkin that you set out at your house will indicate to others with allergies or intolerances that your house is a safe place for treats for these kids too.
3. For the kiddos, make a plan to find other ways to celebrate with less candy.
Candy is a big part of Halloween, but it doesn’t have to be the entire event. As I’ve been going through the years with my son, a lot of what makes our Halloween special is in the time leading up to the day planning and preparing costumes.
Some years, we’ve made family costumes and other years, I’ve worked on making homemade costumes for my son. But the fun doesn’t have to be dedicated to only one day.
Find other ways that Halloween can be fun aside from the candy. Maybe you get together with a few families and play Halloween games. Maybe you print out some i-Spy games or crossword puzzles. Maybe you hide glow-in-the-dark Easter eggs (yes, wrong holiday but still fun idea) around your yard for a night time scavenger hunt.
Also remember that for many kids, collecting candy can sometimes be more fun than actually eating the candy itself. For my son, he will eat about three pieces of candy, but can go trick-or-treating to different houses for hours if we let him. He could care less about what he gets and finds the collection far more fun than actually eating it.
4. Another tip for the kiddos is to find friends to swap treats with.
I remember one of the best parts of Halloween was trading some of my candy for my sister’s every year. This is fun with friends too. After sorting through candy, do a quick candy swap with friends for things your child can eat and the other child maybe can’t. Everybody wins!
It’s a fun way to still feel like they’re not having to give something up, because of their food intolerances or allergies, but making choices that are good for their bodies.
5. If you have kids and no one to swap candy with, consider buying backup candy that is gluten and dairy-free for them to swap some of their other candy for.
You can look at places that do candy buy-backs if you have a lot of candy that you can’t consume or want to donate it to a good cause.
Choose the treats that your child (or you) can’t eat and donate them to the military overseas in care packages or send to your dentist’s office.
6. Make it a point to hand out gluten and dairy-free candy OR non-food treats like glow sticks, spider rings, stickers, or silly putty.
Now that you know what it’s like to eat a gluten-free dairy-free diet, you can definitely relate to the kids that have limited diets too.
Make their Halloween even better by handing out things that will for sure be safe for everyone. This goes along with tip #1, so put out a teal pumpkin if you decide to go the non-candy route.
7. Make your own treats at home.
Of course, Halloween is almost always about candy and treats, but it doesn’t have to be all the processed stuff. There are loads of fun recipes you can make to have the holiday carry throughout the day.
You can roast pumpkin seeds after carving your pumpkins or make popcorn balls. You can also turn any normal recipe into something festive by changing the name: like Blood Smoothies (add beets to your smoothie), Slime Soup (lentil soup), or Bug Pudding (chia pudding). Get creative and have fun!
Now let’s talk treats and candy… I did some research and here is a list of 25 gluten-free and dairy-free treats and brands that are safe for you or your kiddos this Halloween.
25 Gluten and Dairy-free Safe Halloween Treats & Brands
- Skittles
- Starburst
- Life Savers
- Jolly Rancher
- Sour Patch Kids
- Swedish Fish
- Enjoy Life
- Smarties
- Jelly Belly
- Necco wafers
- Surf sweets
- Welch’s fruit snacks
- Mike and Ike’s
- Hot Tamales
- Laffy Taffy
- SweeTARTS
- Dum Dum lollipops
- No Whey chocolates
- Zollipops
- YumEarth Sour Twists
- YumEarth Sour Beans
- YumEarth Lollipops
- Brach’s Now & Later
- Candy Corn (Jelly Belly brand)
- Airheads (bars only)
Read on: Are M&M’s gluten-free?
Read on: Are Snickers gluten-free?
Read on: Are Skittles gluten-free?
Read on: Are Swedish Fish gluten-free?
Read on: Are Airheads gluten-free?
Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, but its a good starting point. I’m sure there are plenty of other treats that are safe for your kids or for you, but these are the ones that I found in my research and seem to be the most readily available out there.
I’ve put this list all together and have a huge guide for The Ultimate Gluten-free Candy List. There’s plenty more ideas over in this post – so be sure to check it out and get your questions answered about other brands.
If you have a question about a brand of candy, Google can be your best friend to determine if its gluten and dairy-free.
I hope you’ve found this information useful as we’re coming up on Halloween season. Of course, if you have any questions, go ahead and pop them in the comments below.
Wishing you a spooky Halloween!!