Wednesday, October 21, 2009
It’s that time of year when children anxiously await the opportunity to travel door-to-door collecting a stash of sugary Halloween candy. But for children with diabetes, Halloween can be a tricky holiday to celebrate. Presbyterian Diabetes Resource Center offers tips for children with diabetes and parents so their Halloween celebration can be safe and sweet.
Kim Kyle-Trejos, RD, CDE, LDN, of Presbyterian Diabetes Resource Center, offers the following advice for patients with diabetes who are planning to celebrate Halloween:
- Candy and sweets can be included with any balanced diet in moderation. Most adults and children with diabetes can safely consume between 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates with meals and 15 to 30 grams of carbohydrates with snacks. Meals should also contain lean proteins and vegetables for volume and balance.
- It works best to enjoy sweets directly after a meal so the impact on the blood sugar is not as rapid.
- For children who take insulin with meals, parents to not necessarily have to cut back on carbs with meals; instead they would simply add more insulin based on their insulin to carb ratio when children include a dessert with meals.
- Treats don’t have to be sweets. Consider some fun alternatives for Halloween. Kids are thrilled to receive small books, colorful pencils, temporary tattoos, small bouncing balls, crayons, whistles, plastic jewelry, Play-Doh and more. The choices are endless.
- To maintain a smaller supply of candy in the home, let your children use their extra candy as a currency tool to buy toys, books, videos or an afternoon of bowling or ice skating.
- Here is a list of some types of popular Halloween candy and their carbohydrate grams:
Candy Size and Package Carbs (g)
Small sucker 1 sucker = 5 g
Hershey’s 1 fun size = 5 g
Miniatures Jolly Rancher 1 piece = 6 g
Laffy Taffy 1 fun size = 7 g
Milk Duds 1 small box = 7 g
Bubble Yum 1 piece = 10 g
Kit Kat 1 fun size = 10 g
Milk Way 1 fun size = 12 g
Candy Corn 1 fun size bag = 13 g
M&M’s plain 1 fun size = 15 g
Reese’s cups 2 regular size = 18 g
Snickers 2.07 oz bar = 36 g
3 Musketeers 2.13 oz bar = 46 g
