Peanut Free Halloween

A few people have already asked me what kinds of candies Leila can eat. Needless to say, Leila is not the only child in the world with a peanut allergy, as it is becoming more and more prevalent, along with a host of other allergies such as wheat, milk, eggs, soy, etc. In fact, a study release today shows that about 3 million children, or 4% of kids under 18 have a food allergy (courtesy of USA Today). So, for those of you that are interested in making your Halloween giveouts safe for allergenic trick-or-treaters, I thought I'd compile a small list for you. And yes, that does mean that most chocolate products are out of the questions. . . especially those all time favorites like butterfingers, snickers, reeses cups (seeing a trend here?)

Some peanut free candies:
Skittles*Starburst*Sweet tarts*Dots*Tropical Dots*Sugar Daddy Pops and Sugar Babies*Junior Mints*Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops*Mike and Ike*Hot Tomales*Life Savers Gummies: Tangy fruit flavor, Wild Berry, Five Flavor• Charms zipa dee doo da pops• Jr. Mints• Peeps• Zours• Sixlets• Dum Dums• Saf T Pops• Astro Pops• Picture Pops• Twizzlers and bite size• Starburst Fruit Chew/Lollipops• Blow Pops• Sugar Daddy Pops• Sugar Babies• Andes Mints• Charleston Chew• Cell’s milk or dark chocolate covered cherries• Rolo-------Regular Size• Krackel---Regular Size• Hershey Bar—Regular Size• Hershey Kisses (only the plain regular ones)

Willy Wonka Candy Factory:* Nerds *Bottle Caps* Nerd Ropes *Laffy Taffy Candy Ropes* Runts *Shock Tarts* Gobstoppers *Wonka’s Pixy Stix* Tart n Tiny *Fun Dip* Laffy Taffy *Flavor Flippers

And for the ultimate in allergen free candy, try SMARTIES!!! They're free of every major allergen, which essentially means they're just plain sugar :-)

Of course, this list is not comprehensive, and you should always read the labels on the back, especially in specially packed Halloween packs, because it is possible that the candy was "manufactured in a facility that handles peanuts, tree nuts, etc."

Hope this helps and happy halloween!