This is wrong for so many reasons, but I'm going to keep this short and simple(ish). Type 1 diabetes is about balancing carb intake with the appropriate amount of insulin. When DJ was diagnosed with diabetes we had friends and family asking left and right what they should give DJ "since she can't eat candy" and many people would unknowingly offer up snacks that are just as bad. Did you know eating a fruit snack is pretty much the same as eating a candy bar. Okay, one fruit snack = about half a candy bar. Someone even suggested we take her trick-or-treating and buy the candy from her so she could have cash instead of candy. That might fly now, but at seven years old? HA! Good luck. Candy is better than gold!
Diabetes sucks and kids that live with it already have to make major life changes. Taking away, or changing, holiday tradition (okay, so halloween isn't a real holiday, but you get my drift) is not something I've ever been willing to do. DJ's doctors encouraged us to take DJ trick-or-treating, since it's something we've always done, and to let her eat her candy. The difference being that now we had to incorporate the candy into our normal meal/snack times. We were even told that because we'll be out walking around, and exercise lowers blood sugar, she should probably be allowed a couple of pieces while we're trick-or-treating.
This year DJ will be trick-or-treating for the first time without me (sniff-sniff) and if I know my daughter she'll eat too much candy while she's out and about and when she gets home to me her blood sugar will be through the roof. I will get irritated, but I'll secretly be happy she had a couple of hours of normalcy. I will gladly stay up testing and injecting so she can have a good day tomorrow.
So, halloween becomes a little more inconvenient but at least the kid can earn her candy and eat it too.
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