What KC Parents Can Do With All That Candy After Halloween

Halloween is almost here, and kids all over the Kansas City metro area are getting ready for a big night of costumes and candy, ghosts and goblins, and trick-or-treating. Halloween night can be great fun for parents, too. There’s not much that can top watching your little ghouls and ghosts as they react with wonder and joy to the evening’s festivities. The problems don’t typically start until you get home.

When there are so many sugary treats in your kids’ Halloween bags, it can be hard to keep your little ones from gorging on candy that is bad for their teeth. Sure, you’ll want to let them have a little—Halloween only comes once a year, after all—but you’ll also want to avoid letting candy become the primary ingredient in their diet for the next week.

As your Kansas City family dentist, we’ve written in the past about tooth-friendly alternative Halloween treats for you to give out, but that doesn’t help you with the bounty of sugar that your own trick-or-treaters bring home. Here are a couple of dentist-approved things that you can do to help reduce the amount of candy that your kids consume after Halloween is over.

Barter For It. Your kids won’t like it much if you just take their candy away or tell them they can’t eat all of it. And who can blame them? Instead, try making a deal with them. Let them “sell” or trade their candy to you in exchange for something they really want. They can invest candy toward that game or toy that they’ve been eyeing, or toward an activity that they really want to do. And there’s no need to throw the candy out just because your kids don’t eat it. It can be donated to children in need via local food pantries and other charitable organizations.

Play With It. Okay, you’ve probably spent at least some time trying to teach your kids not to play with their food, but this is one instance that’s an exception to the rule. Candy can actually be more fun to play with than it is to eat, and there are countless fun (and educational!) experiments and crafts that you can do right at home that will help teach your kids science while also getting rid of that sugary candy in a way that’s so much fun the kids won’t even realize what they’re giving up. If you’re looking for some great ideas, check out the Candy Experiments blog!

Whatever you do, though, your kids are going to eat some sugary Halloween candy. And that’s okay! Like we said, Halloween comes only once a year, and it can be a truly magical experience for kids of all ages. The most important thing for you to remember is to make sure that they brush and floss afterward, keep to their good dental health routines the rest of the year, and, of course, have a happy Halloween!

If you have questions, need suggestions for tooth-friendly candy alternatives, or want to schedule your child’s next dental checkup, call Blacker Family Dental in Kansas City at (816) 763-8400 or click here to schedule an appointment.