Many parents are pleased when they find sugar-free treats in children's treat-or-treat bags, but pediatricians warn too many of the morsels can turn Halloween into a painful experience for kids.
"Just because a candy is sugar-free don't assume that it is safe to allow children to consume large amounts of it," said Dr. Denise Salerno, assistant professor of pediatrics at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
Sugar-free candies often contain an artificial sweetener called sorbitol, an ingredient that can cause stomachaches and diarrhea when consumed in large amounts.
"Sorbitol is itself a carbohydrate that is not readily absorbed in the GI (gastrointestinal) tract," Salerno told United Press International. Although eating a few pieces of sugar-free candy is unlikely to cause problems, she said some parents do not realize it is just as important to limit sugar-free treats as it is to limit regular candy.
"I advise limiting children to one or two pieces of candy -- sugar-free or regular candy -- a day," said Salerno. She added that the one-to-two piece limit refers to snack-size candies. For regular candy bars the limit is one a day.
Dr. Lolita McDavid, medical director of child advocacy and protection services at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland and former director of the Children's Defense Fund, agreed putting limits on candy is a good plan -- most of the time.
"But on Halloween, I say give them the bag," McDavid told UPI. Halloween traditionally is a day when children break the rules of conventional life by dressing up in costumes pretending to be different characters, "so I think it is all right to let them have the candy on this one day and then limit their candy intake," she said.
"I'll share what we did in my house," said McDavid who has two adult children. "When the kids came back from trick-or-treating we would first examine the treats. We'd sit on the floor and each child would spread his or her treats on a piece of newspaper. We would immediately throw out anything that looked suspicious, such as unwrapped candy."
McDavid said she then would allow her children "to trade because not everyone likes the same things." After the trading was over, "I let them eat as much as they want, which was usually not that much, maybe four or five pieces. After that it's time to brush the teeth and go to bed."
Dietician Sally Phillips, who works at the Children's Medical Center in Akron, Ohio, said parents who take McDavid's approach need to realize that "these children probably have also had a school party that day and probably had cake or ice cream and candy at that party. I think that even without hard limits, there needs to be an upper cutoff valve on consumption."
Phillips told UPI that Halloween is a good opportunity to teach children about setting dietary limits and parents are a powerful example in this regard. For example, if parents decide to dip into the treat bag, by the time a child reaches age 9, "he or she is going to realize that when the candy disappears, someone is eating it." She said she advises the same one-or-two treat limits for parents who want to share the Halloween bounty.
For both children and parents, Phillips said Halloween candy should be taken with a meal. "This is really better for dental health since it is more likely that children and adults will brush their teeth after a meal than after a snack," Phillips said. She advised adding a treat to the lunch box and having a second one for dessert after dinner.
Because a treat or two a day is unlikely to deplete a full trick-or-treat bag, both Phillips and McDavid recommended bringing leftover candy to work.
"I tell people, 'bring the candy to the office,' it will always disappear," said Phillips. McDavid said, "even lollipops disappear quickly from the candy bowl at my office."
Asked about healthy treats, Phillips said there really are "no healthy candies and I don't think people should be persuaded by labels that proclaim some candies to be fat-free. Fat-free is not an issue with candy." Salerno said she advises health-conscious parents to "hand out pretzels, that's what I'm giving out at my house," while McDavid said that granola bars are probably the healthiest option for treats.
