Handling the Candy Situation

It is that time of year again—your children have been planning their costumes for weeks, or months, and dreaming of endless bags of candy.  While the excitement of Halloween builds for children in the Rivertowns, parents often dread the aftermath: the sugar hangover.  In order to avoid the monster meltdowns and ghoulish tantrums, you may want to give some thought to how you will handle the "candy situation." 

Halloween is an enormously fun day filled with costumes, treats, Irvington's parade down Main Street, and of course, candy.  First and foremost, it is important to remember that this holiday only lasts one day.  Your child cannot ruin his health or develop multiple cavities in one day. So, letting your youngster indulge—or over-indulge—for one day is completely acceptable.  That goes for you too!  Enjoy a Milk Dud or Hershey's Extra Dark along the trick-or-treating route. However, you need to decide what you will do the next day, and the following week, with all of that candy.

One strategy is to for you and your child to come up with the number of pieces of candy that she will keep before trick-or treating begins. A reasonable number, I believe, is somewhere around ten. Upon consultation with my seven-year-old, the number crept up to 13, so you may have some negotiating to do. Your child's personality will come in to play here, which can be an interesting experiment.  Will she eat ten pieces in one day, or use moderation, savoring one piece per day for ten days?  You can discuss both options with your child, but ultimately they will, and should, decide how to eat their delicacies. Devouring these treats should be fun, so keep your conversations light-hearted. Once you impart too many rules and regulations, the spirit of Halloween seems to vanish. 

While you want your child to enjoy their treats, there is nothing wrong with discussing the benefits of eating healthier foods. Explain to your child that his body needs certain nourishment to grow, like broccoli and yogurt. Once their body has all of the important food that it needs, it is okay to indulge in a treat.  So while you want them to enjoy their candy, it is your job together to make sure that their body also has what it needs to be healthy.

After your child has picked out his ten favorite pieces of candy, he will undoubtedly have pounds left.  There are many options for donating candy this year, especially to troops overseas.  Operation Gratitude (www.opgratitude.com) and Any Soldier (www.anysoldier.com) will accept your unwanted candy and ship it to troops stationed around the world. Another option is visiting Dr. Dancygier.  For the third year, Dr. Benjamin Dancygier of Valley Pediatric Dentistry in Jefferson Valley, NY, is participating in a nationwide campaign to promote dental health while giving something back to help the troops. He will buy back the Halloween candy that area trick-or-treaters collect and donate it to Operation Support Our Troops for distribution to service men and women deployed overseas.

Children can bring their bags of Halloween goodies to the Valley Pediatric Dentistry office at 3630 Hill Boulevard, Suite 401 in Jefferson Valley on Monday November 1 – Friday November 5 from 9 am – 5 pm.  Dr. Dancygier and his staff will weigh and pay each child $1 for each pound of candy that is collected. (This is about a 30-minute drive from our area.)

I hope that you and your families have a safe, festive Halloween… and remember, this too shall pass.