Siblings Everett, left, 7, and Weston Cummins, 9, have food allergies. Their parents, Janna and Travis, have to be cautious when the family is trick-or-treating — carefully reading ingredient lists, not accepting candies with peanuts or sesame oil and being careful what the kids touch. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

The sugar-fueled ritual of Halloween trick-or-treating gives kids a chance to dress up in cool costumes, hang out with friends and, most importantly, gorge on their favorite candy.

But the candy part – the best part for most trick-or-treaters – can be a whole lot dicier for kids with food allergies, and stressful for their concerned parents.

Janna Cummins of Yarmouth has two young sons with food allergies. Weston, 9, is allergic to peanuts (putting some of the most prized treats, like Snickers bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, off-limits), while Everett, 7, can’t eat chickpeas and sesame (while his chickpea allergy isn’t an issue at Halloween, candy corn often contains sesame oil, as do some jelly beans).

Cummins and her boys have to take extra-precautions when they trick-or-treat. They carry EpiPens. They don’t snack on any treats they collect while they’re out, waiting until they get home to sort through them with their parents, reading labels closely or researching online to determine if the candy is safe.

Technically, the boys could touch wrapped candies that contain allergens.  But they don’t risk it because the wrappers might not be fully sealed, or might be contaminated on the outside. They opt for non-food treats like trading cards, pencils, stickers, temporary tattoos, bouncy balls and mini Slinkys at homes where they’re offered.

Sometimes, Weston has to outright decline a treat.  “If Weston gets to the door and sees the candy has peanuts, he just doesn’t take it,” Cummins said. “He says, ‘Thank you, but I’m allergic.’ I don’t want him to take something that’s essentially poisonous to him and put it with his other things.”

Food allergies affect 1 in 13 children in America, just under 6 million nationwide, according to Sung Poblete, CEO of the non-profit group Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE). In Maine, an estimated 19,000 kids have food allergies, Poblete said.

“Unfortunately, these numbers are not going down. They’re going up,” she said. FARE’s data shows that food allergies among children have risen 50 percent between 2007 and 2021. “I call food allergies a silent public health epidemic.”

Ten years ago, FARE launched its Teal Pumpkin Project to help make Halloween trick-or-treating safer and more inclusive. Placing a plastic teal-colored pumpkin bucket (available at CVS stores nationwide) outside your home indicates you keep separately stored non-food treats to offer kids with food allergies. The teal pumpkins aren’t exactly in widespread use in Maine, though area parents say they’ve noticed more households offering allergy-friendly treats as food allergy awareness grows, along with the number of kids who suffer from them.

Everett, left, 7, and Weston Cummins, 9, dressed in their Halloween costumes – Sonic the Hedgehog and a raccoon – in their yard. The boys both have allergies to some candies. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

SAFE STRATEGIES

In 2017, the United States Department of Agriculture updated its feeding guidelines for infants, recommending that parents introduce potential allergens to their babies’ diets as early as four to six months, because recent studies had shown it would help immunize them; the previous guidelines had recommended just the opposite – that parents avoid feeding their kids common food allergens.

While you’d think that fewer kids would now be developing food allergies with the the new guidelines in place, we’re in the middle of a “lag-time” period, according to Kathy Przywara, vice president of community for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

“Any time (nutrition) guidelines change, it can take a long time for all the pediatricians and doctors advising the parents to really embrace and disseminate the new guidelines,” Przywara said.

Parents of kids with food allergies have to navigate a mine field of potential danger at Halloween. It’s not enough to rely on package labels to determine if a candy is safe to eat, as many of the small “fun-size” candy bars list their ingredients on the bag they come in, but not on the individual candy wrappers themselves. Moreover, the mini bars may be produced at different facilities from a candy company’s usual production plant – introducing cross-contamination concerns – and they don’t always contain the same ingredients as their full-size counterparts.

Przywara offered Laffy Taffy as an example. The regular-size Laffy Taffy bar contains eggs. The mini size does not, but contains soy, another allergen.

“Every year we hear that somebody with the best of intentions knows that a kid can eat Laffy Taffy and goes, ‘I’m going to get them the big treat,’ and it contains their allergen,” she said.

Przywara, whose own kids were allergic to milk, eggs, wheat and corn when they were young, said parents employ different strategies for navigating the Halloween trick-or-treating season. Some go trick-or-treating with their kids, making sure nobody snacks while they’re out. When they get home, they sift through the kids’ hauls to remove anything that’s a danger, replacing those items with safe candy or non-food party favors. Some families invoke the “Switch Witch,” who magically replaces the allergenic candy with safe treats overnight.

Some families forego trick-or-treating altogether. The kids dress up in their costumes, stay home and help hand out safe candy and party favors to trick-or-treaters who come to their door. “So they still get to participate, but they’re not collecting candy they can’t eat,” Przywara said.

Other parents may go around the neighborhood ahead of time to distribute safe candies their neighbors can give their kids later.

FEELING LEFT OUT

Caili Elwell of Gray will be with her 5-year-old daughter Evie as she goes trick-or-treating for the first time this year.

Evie is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soy, dairy, gluten and pea protein. The peanuts, tree nut and egg allergies are severe enough to give her anaphylaxis. Despite her wide range of allergies, she’s able to enjoy some candies that Elwell finds easily enough at Hannaford or sometimes Costco, like Yum Earth lollipops, Unreal coconut bars and Annie’s gummies.

They’ll be in a different neighborhood from where they live, so Elwell plans to bring safe candies with them to slip to home hosts who can then offer them to Evie. The little girl will be carrying her EpiPen, and a typed list of her allergens as a precaution.

“Halloween is a really tough holiday for kids with food allergies, I’ve got to say,” said Elwell, who writes a column in Edible Maine magazine for families dealing with food allergies, and is a certified nutrition coach for food allergies. “Especially with the little ones, four, five, six – they’re wanting to be part of it all, and you want that for them.

“But as a parent of a kid with extensive food allergies, you have to be creative, and you have to be a little more outgoing than sometimes you want to be,” Elwell said. “It definitely puts you out of your comfort zone sometimes.”

As stressful as it can be for the parents, what bothers them most is how the allergies can make their kids feel frustrated or left out of some of the fun of trick-or-treating. Their levels of disappointment seem to vary depending on how severe or wide-ranging their food allergies are.

Like other parents whose kids had their allergies diagnosed while they were infants, Cummins said it helps that her boys have lived with their food restrictions for as long as they can remember.

“They are aware that their experience is a bit different from their friends’ experience, who might get really excited over that peanut butter cup they can’t pick,” Cummins said. “Because they have not known any different, this has been their trick-or-treating experience from the beginning. They know there’s a social hype around it, but they don’t 100 percent know what they’re missing.”

Weston Cummins said he doesn’t feel overly limited by his peanut allergy. “It’s fine when I can’t have candy from one house, because probably the next house has something I can have,” he said. “Last year my friend was eating candy while trick-or-treating. I did that too, but my dad had to check my candy to make sure it was safe first. But it was fine – it only took a minute.”

Kids with multiple food allergies can struggle a little more. Devin Snyder of Cape Elizabeth said her 9-year-old son William is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, soy and milk. While he can still enjoy candies like Starbursts, Smarties and Sour Patch Kids, he has to steer clear of chocolate and lots of the most popular treats.

“We try our best to make him feel not left out, whether it’s trick-or-treating or another holiday or a birthday party,” Snyder said. “But it’s impossible to make him feel like everyone else when he knows he’s way more restricted.

“He’s starting to get to the age where he understands more about the safety concerns around it and the importance of taking that responsibility on his own more,” she added. “But even though he’s aware of it, it’s still sad for him.”

Snyder said it’s important for William and other kids with food allergies “to focus on other things that they can look forward to at Halloween, whether it’s the costume itself or just being out with friends.”

Elwell agreed, noting the need to bring the public up to speed on children’s food allergies. “It’s all about education and advocacy,” she said. “As long as we keep spreading the awareness and the community is able to come together and provide safe foods but also non-food items, Halloween can be much more about getting together with your friends and dressing up.”

Andy and Amanda Barbo and their 5-year-old daughter Sadie participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project at their home near Payson Park in Portland. Courtesy of Andy Barbo

‘A LITTLE SPARK OF JOY’

Poblete said FARE launched its Teal Pumpkin Project in 2014 in an effort to make Halloween safer for kids with allergies, and just as important, to make them feel fully included. The teal pumpkin is meant only to hold non-food items, though many families who participate in the project also store some allergy-safe candies separately to hand out as well.

Andy Barbo’s 5-year-old daughter, Sadie, doesn’t have any food allergies. But his wife, Amanda, discovered her own peanut allergy while eating a peanut butter sundae at Red’s in South Portland several years ago. So his family puts a teal pumpkin outside their house near Payson Park to let trick-or-treaters know they’ve got trinkets and little toys to hand out, along with candy like gummies and Smarties that are safe for most kids.

“Having allergies happens to us, and being so tuned in to what we eat in the house now, we wanted to provide a little ease for families during trick-or-treating,” Barbo said. “It’s a small thing we can do to relieve the stress for families that have problems with allergens.

“Kids show up and expect candy, and it’s always fun to see a little spark of joy when their expectations are subverted and they get a little toy instead,” he added. “Even the kids who don’t have allergies, it’s a fun surprise. They’re like, ‘Oh, cool.’ They think it’s pretty neat.”

Kaitlin Gee of Portland, whose 7-year-old son, Eli, has a tree nut allergy, said she hasn’t noticed an uptick in teal pumpkins in her North Deering neighborhood in recent years. “But it’s a national initiative, and I do think it is growing,” she said. As a gluten-free lifestyle coach with celiac disease, she also advocates for allergy awareness and tries to influence others on social media to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project.

In addition to non-food party favors, Gee also tries to offer some sweets that are free of common allergens, though they’re not always a big hit. “Like one year I had a ton of fruit leather left over,” she chuckled. Still, she’d rather be inclusive than the most popular stop on the trick-or-treating route.

“There are more (allergy-safe) products available on the market than ever,” Gee said. “But it’s more about the change of having people purchase those products. And unless someone in your family has a food allergy, I don’t know if you’d necessarily be aware that those products exist. That’s why the Teal Pumpkin Project is such a great initiative to build that awareness, and why I love to participate.”

“I think more people have a more diverse approach to trick-or-treating these days,” Cummins said. “I’ve seen an increase in awareness. And trunk-or-treats have gotten really good with this – they’re almost always prepared with something that’s a non-food alternative.”

Karyn MacNeil, director of Yarmouth Community Services, said since the Yarmouth Trunk or Treat started five years ago (it’s currently wait-listed and open only to Yarmouth residents), it has provided pencils, temporary tattoos and glow sticks. It also has stations offering candy treats, but event organizers keep the non-food items completely separate in teal serving bowls.

“Our department provides a lot of options for the Teal Pumpkin Project so kiddos can still participate fully at this event,” she said. “We’ve heard a lot of great feedback from Yarmouth residents who were worried their children wouldn’t be able to participate, and they seem to be really satisfied with the way we run the event.”

For Przywara and others, continuing to spread awareness of children’s allergies is as key as managing the chronic diseases.

“For my kids, we just reinforced that everybody’s different, everybody has something that makes them different, and food allergies are just one of those types of things,” Przywara said. “It was a lot of advocating and educating their friends and classmates that it’s just another thing, and if we can all have compassion and empathy, we can make things more inclusive.”