Kids can be surprisingly patient about their food allergy restrictions. Most of the time.
Halloween is not one of those times. As far as they’re concerned, Halloween was a holiday invented for the sole purpose of “building character” because “Life Isn’t Fair.” I buy a box of treats specifically to swap for candy that isn’t safe. But when I have to do the Great Candy Sort, my son still eyeballs the pile of “Stuff He Can’t Have” with seething resentment.
Why You Should Care:
Even though us allergy parents are used to making special accommodations, young kids have a keener sense of fair play than they’re given credit for. And trust me, even when they’re resigned to the fact that they’ll be excluded on a regular basis, they feel it quite keenly when no attempts are made to include them.
Never, ever be one of those people who say, “Oh a kid with food allergies knows he can’t have this and won’t care.”
Of course they care. Don’t be dismissive of their struggles. If you believe they don’t care, clearly you’ve never dealt with a crying youngster who felt excluded and marginalized because he had to watch other people eating things when no safe alternative was made available. You remember the Seinfeld episode with the Soup Nazi and the way George stood there while Jerry was eating his soup?
Yeah.
Before anyone gets all indignant–finish reading. A lot of people get all stuffy about food allergies because they feel like accommodating special needs is a huge ordeal. It’s not. Just a few seconds of informed decision-making can make you the stranger who was thoughtful and awesome enough to care.
If you want to be considerate, here’s four simple ways to do it without adding any stress on you:
