halloween?

[mamabelle]

My son is just 26 months and we've been invited to hang out with some friends on Halloween and go trick-or-treating.  I don't think he'll be up for much so I don't imagine he'll get a ton of candy, but I have started to wonder how I'm going to treat this.

On one hand, we try to let our little one decide what to eat and when to not create issues around food.  This has worked really well for us, but he is still very young and we don't have choices that we don't approve of in our house.  So part of me just wants to let him do what he wants with the candy figuring there won't be a ton of it and he'll get over it. But I'd love to hear what others' do around this holiday issue.

What do other parents do or plan on doing?  With older kids, I have read about buying candy from them, trading for toys, a "halloween fairy" that takes the bag of candy from the foot of their bed and leaves a present, etc. 

[Adaline'sMama]

Im not buying candy, but DD is going trick or treating with one other kid and us. Its basically an excuse for her to walk around and show off her costume. (ladybug). Im not too concerned about the candy, because I plan to let her eat some and then when she goes to sleep Ill throw the rest away (or eat some ) and the next day it will be over.

[Baby_Cakes]

My DD is a little older (3) and we'll take her trick or treating down the block.  She's excited to go and picked her costume this year.  We're vegan, but what we do is let her collect all the candy and then sort through it once we are home.  We let her eat a few pieces, it's just one day.  The non-vegan stuff either gets sent to friends/family or tossed if it looks sketchy.

We buy only vegan candy to hand out (meaning no dairy/milk chocolate).  This year we've got Nerds, Skittles, Laffy Taffy, and my favorite, Mary Janes.  The kids we get are always stoked to get what we give out, b/c I think nowadays most ppl give out chocolate bars and minis.  We give out the stuff no one else does!  LOL!  We do let DD snack on what we give out.

Oh - and once she's in from T or T'ing, she hands out the candy.  She loves to do it!

[Peony]

We let them eat some that night. The toddler's candy disappears that night after bedtime, the older two get to keep theirs for a couple days and then it goes away as well. 

[chel]

I limit the amount of junk I buy, but on holidays the rules are very lax.
Since dd2 is very young, she will be limited by choking hazards. She will do a couple of houses, then come home to hand out candy. Dd1 will run with friends then share loot with the entire family and watch some halloween cartoons.
My best trick is to just limit the amount of homes kids tot at. It's usually fairly cold and dark here, so the kids usually want to go home soon. I also insist on walking. Limits number of houses and burns some calories.