Aargh! I hate Halloween candy!

[straighthaircurly]

I have had it! For a week, we have tolerated the wild mood swings...incredible emotional volatility...from tears to wild/crazy to sobs again. Enough! DS gets belligerent, uncooperative and selfish when he eats candy. He is 7 and he had another tantrum in a store today because we couldn't walk to the far side of the store to look at movies that he would beg to buy (and I had no plans to buy). I had already gotten the big lumber cart so he could ride on it, already let him spend extra time looking at Christmas display because he loves the lights. All my explanations of us having a time limit went right over his head and just turned into a tantrum. We had to leave the store and head home only for me to have to turn around and go back without him to get the items we had to have today.

So the Halloween candy has been taken away for good...GONE! (In case you are wondering, he had been warned that it would happen). Anyone else have candy monsters replace their normally wonderful children this time of year?

[AllyRae]

That happened last year--one of our children, who is always pretty high strung and at last year was having hours of meltdowns every week anyhow, turned into a violent, raging, uncontrollable child right after Halloween. She would go into 3 hour rages several times a day, flip over smaller pieces of furniture, and hurt everyone. Now, she also has RAD, so at first I would chalk it up to that, until I figured out they were 10 times worse than her normal rages. And they happened about 45 minutes after having candy. So, we nixed the artificial dyes & flavors and refined sugar cold turkey. The meltdowns went back down to baseline almost instantly.

This year, the kids only had organic candy (surf sweet jelly beans & gummy worms for example)--no artificial dyes & flavors, no refined sugar, and it was like night and day. They got slightly hyped up, but their emotions were still even keeled and none of the kids got any more aggressive, violent, or rageful. It was quite clear that my 3 year old was very sensitive to the dyes, flavors, and/or processed sugar. The only time we've seen that awful behavior happen again this year was when we had marshmellows at a bonfire--she wigged out about an hour afterwards and it was difficult to get her back under control.

[Aaronridge]

I have a 9 year old candy monster. I haven't decided yet if I should take it all away, let him eat it all at once and be done with it, or just get rid of it completely. Yeah, I hate it, too.

[One_Girl]

I'm mostly offering sympathy. Those big tantrums are the worst, especially at that age when they should be over them. We had one in WalMart not related to candy and I lost it afterwards. We haven't had one since then but I felt bad about losing it (though not very bad because I have reached the end of my tolerance with tantrums). I hate the candy also, but not because of any behavior changes. There is so just much of it and it seems to go on and on. I keep waiting to get to the end and am thinking about helping the end along by sneaking some. I am sorry you are dealing with such a huge change in behavior.

[sweetcheeks]

I hear ya, mama. I sent the rest of the candy (kept the chips for school lunches) with DH today for him and his buddies. He's headed up for a boys' getaway at a friend's cabin in the boonies for some hunting. I was tired of the sugar rushes and the never-freaking-ending whining when I'd tell them that, no, Halloween candy is not an acceptable snack.

[pianojazzgirl]

I hear ya mamas. My dd's behaviour has totally tanked this week. We already gave more than half the candy for the Halloween fairy, but she still has a ton. I think what I will do is offer her something in exchange for the candy if she chooses to give it to me. A dollar per x amount of pieces of candy, or maybe a special outing or something if she gives me almost all of them. I'm not sure. I don't feel quite ready to just confiscate it, but I'd very willing to give her money or a present if that's what it took to make it disappear!

(3yr old ds on the other hand has - without being asked or in any way prompted by me - given me almost all his candy as a present! Awww....)

[Mom2GCNJ]

Halloween candy works beautifully for decorating gingerbread houses. Tootsie rolls make nice logs for a wood pile. Dum Dums make great light posts. M&Ms, Smarties, Skittles, etc make great shingles and "lights". Of course then you have to keep the kids from eating the decorated house, but that seems to be a lot easier than stopping the plundering of the pumpkin. So we eat a little of the good stuff - chocolate - and save the rest to decorate houses.

[chattyprincess]

hmmm...we have a new rule this year (dd is 4) she generally would only be wild about the candy the first day or so but would bug for her "treats" after every meal then have the crazy behavior. so this year She was allowed to pick out 4 pieces (one for each year of age) kept all the knick knacky stuff and chips and we sent the candy to daddies work. The we headed off to toys r us and she got to pick out anything on gods green earth she wanted that totalled less then $20...the best sanity saving money ever spent. This is a tradition I am gladly keeping!

[Autumn Breeze]

yeah me

I let the kids pick about 20 pieces, and then paid a penny a piece for every piece left. Then I couldn't/wouldn't stop eating it. So it's gone. Sigh. I think next year I like the idea of replacing it with some more lasting....a toy or book or clothing.

[nolansmummy]

My daughter isn't really affected by the sugar, but my son is. I let the kids have one piece every day since halloween and last night i sent it with dh to work. The guys he works with are all single, no kids, and happily got rid of the candy for us.
I also let each of the kids pick out a toy.
Every year before this the "halloween scarecrow" would come and leave a toy in the candy basket. This year we decided to just let them trade it in for a toy they wanted.

[Pepe]

We didn't accumulate much candy because Halloween consisted of a kiddo party and trick-or-treating at only 4 or 5 houses...BUT even a small amount of candy led to the behavior some of you described.

We let DS (age 5) have a few pieces and then offered him the chance to turn the remainder all in for some new Legos instead. It's not a perfect solution, but we all had a blast with the Legos today.

[straighthaircurly]

I think next year I will offer to "buy" the candy from him for either a toy or cash. I like that idea. The hard thing this year was he had very few repeats in his candy bag. Lots of unique stuff and lots of types he had never tried before so he wanted to keep almost everything instead of his normal sharing with mom and dad. And there was more for some reason even though he went to fewer houses.

Hopefully with it gone, things will get back to normal. Glad to know my candy monster isn't alone in the world.

[OkiMom]

This year DD1 was allowed a couple of pieces then the rest went to work with DH or was eaten by him. She was fine with it. It was a good treat for her but I did see some of the behaviors all of you are describing. Next year I think it will be more complicated (shes older and we will be visiting my inlaws who don't understand why Im strick when it comes to her diet) so I might offer to "buy" her candy.. She loves anything to do with art and any books so she would jump at a chance to trade the candy (which is "good but not as good as your cookies mommy") for a new book or art stuff.

[HappyMommy2]

My kids are younger (3&4) but we did an 11-minute Candy Mania after trick-or-treating, where they ate everything they wanted. Then they spazzed out, flipped out, and finally passed out.

Now it is on a high shelf, and they can have a piece after dinner or as a treat now and then. DH is making sure it quickly disappears!

As they get older, I may buy it from them for a toy like above!

[Youngfrankenstein]

Hmmm...we've never had a problem. They got about 6# between the 3 of them and it was gone by the next Saturday. We let them eat as much as they wanted the first day and some everyday til it was gone. I find it more fun and easier than having it last and last and last.

[Norasmomma]

My DD has a serious problem with sugar, so we only let her have ONE piece of Halloween candy a day. She's always been one to get mood swings from candy crashing and low blood sugar.

I put it up high, and then she can't even try to get it. Idk works for us.

[swiesz]

we have 3 boys and my youngest is now 2 1/2 and goes crazy for the stuff so we let them have some on the night of trick or treating and then the next night as we had to go 2 times this year (one at home and then the next night at families) They had an obscene amount. So after that we put it out and the halloween witch comes and replaces the candy with a toy. and they each got about 5 pieces that they finished in a couple of days. I got sick of dragging it out and wanted it just done. We have done this since they were little and it works well for us. This way they still get to have fun and exercise collecting all the candy then it goes away and everyone is happy.

[Mackenzie]

We have the same problem.... Add in lollipop sticks scattered abt my living room and ours is GONE too

[Christine4kiddos]

With 4 kids, we have been facing the halloween candy issue for roughly 16 years... after trying many different ways of dealing with the sugar monsters.... we opted for the "eat however much you want, but it needs to be gone by Sunday (or in a week, if Halloween is on a Sunday) What happens is this: all the chocolate is gone within a day, then they meander through the taffy/tootsie rolls, then the gummy whatevers.. and by the time a week is up they have actually not eaten candy for a couple days and are fine with it going in the trash.  Sure, they're a bit off the wall..BUT it is actually fun to say "YES! Have as much as you want!"... so contrary to what I'd normally do! And the kids think it's awesome too!!!! Yes, there have been some tummy aches, but they quickly learned their limit!

[greenemami]

We do the Halloween Fairy where the kids leave some of their candy and get a small toy or healthier treat in return (we did pirate booty, the kids clif bars, coupons for movie/popcorn night, etc., cheap easy stuff).  Well, she had to make a return trip a day later because dd FREAKED out after eating a red lollipop and I just couldn't deal-so all of the candy minus 4 pieces of chocolate (so no artificial colors, etc.) and dd actually happily traded the rest of her candy.  I did give her some "natural" lollipops in return because she loves lollipops.  I was really surprised she did it so willingly, but I think she really "got" why she was feeling so yucky and crazy after I explained it to her!

I did leave the rest of dsd's candy for her-she is pretty good about self-regulating and chances are I will end up tossing 75% of it in a few weeks-she did take a bunch to her mom's house too though.

I tried letting dd pick some candy for hte day (maybe 5-6 pieces?) and she sat and ate it all in a row, leading to a major sugar meltdown later.  Maybe she is just too little for self-regulating, maybe it just isn't her personality!  I would hve eaten it all at once too, lol!