ALL holidays are hard for me because I'm surrounded by food I can't eat. But I developed type 1 as an adult. I wondered what it's like for kids. I feel bad for them. I put little bags of nuts in my basket for trick-or-treaters just in case I get a kid who can't have much candy and would find nuts a better treat. What was Halloween like for those of you for whom type 1 really was "juvenile" diabetes?
Maria
I was diagnosed at age 5, but Halloween was never about candy for me - even as a non-D kid. It was all about the fun of it. After a night of trick or treating, I’d come home with my candy and be able to pick out a few to eat over the course of a week or so, but took the rest to school and was “the cool kid” who gave most of his candy away to everyone else. My friends loved it, though I’m sure their parents weren’t all that fond of it! Anyhow, I remember a fond childhood of Halloween!
MIchael,
How awesome! I love that story. I never thought about the possibility of giving candy away and how fun that would be. Well done. I find that inspiring actually.
Maria
I was dxd. at age 3 and my 2 Brothers at age 4. We weren’t allowed to go out for Hallowe’en, etc. until we were about 12 or 13 because candy and other sweets were a Big No No back then. That is probably why I made sure that our Kids were able to enjoy all the Special occasions. Okay, I enjoyed all the Fun also. 
I did moderate their candy intake though.
Well, Noadays with the advent of the newer Insulins, Test meters, Knowing our Insulin toCarbRatios, We can have a Few mini Candy bars… the Mini Hershy’s at 5 carbs each and even the Big Hershy bars w/Almonds ( 21 carbs) and they digest well for me and others I know… and since it has Almonds, that are good for us, it’s part of our Food Group ,right? LOL
9/10x it’s my Desert - eat 3-5 per week…
Just stay away fromany foods that areslow digester’s , like bakery goods, that take extra time to digest and spike the BG’s after 3 hrs, unless you have a pump and do a dualwave or take a 1nd shot at hour #2…
5.53% Last months A1c
My niece went out for three hours with friends last night so three hours of walking. I reduced the basals on her pump by 30 percent for the walk and twenty five percent overnight. She was 200 at bedtime (because she had eaten a large candy bar and bolused for it but had 3 units on board. One hour and a half later she was 50. Gave 25 grams carbs. Hour and a half after that she was 57. First 50 was because she needed less ICR for the candy due to exercise but I was surprised by the second 57. Reduced basal 24 hours to minus 30 percent. She stayed 120s to 130s rest of night. So we lower basals when walking. In addition, we encourage her to eat 20 grams of candy for each hour she is walking as she is walking. But ask her to eat candy without chocolate or peanut butter, hard candy, swedish fish or skittles or Nerds, Chuckles while walking. The challenge is not letting her eat candy but figuring out the proper Excarbs, reduction of insulin for the next 24 hours. In general, treats are allowed at any time. But we do not keep a lot of junk around the house and we don’t offer junk. Her day to day diet is very healthy and she has lost a loit of her taste for sugar; rarely asks for it.
last year (my son’s first halloween with D), we let him have his 30g bedtime snack worth in treats from trick-or-treating along with the extra he needed from being a little lower with the exercise (he had also eaten a couple pieces while we were out walking) and then gave cheese and other free items as the rest of his bedtime snack. the rest was rationed out througout the coming weeks with so many pieces per day as part of his meals. This year we are a few weeks into the pump, so I let him kind of eat whatever he wanted from his treat bag as long as he showed me first (for a little while then we did have to cut him off-lol). I gave quite a few boluses, but he was having a great time:) The rest I will ration to a certain number of pieces per day just like we did before D.
the hardest part was guessing the carbs in some of the unlabelled/unfamiliar items.