My kids have been excited for Halloween since school started almost 2 months ago. The costumes, decorations, pumpkin picking, carving and eating, and of course candy has been all the rage as we quickly approach the big day.

It’s not ideal, but let’s face it, lots of candy is hard to avoid at Halloween. But there are alternatives to all the artificial dyes, flavorings, and other junk I can’t pronounce that’s in typical candy. (Which I’m sure I ingested tons of as a kid….but that was before the days of internet where you could look this stuff up:))

This great website, www.naturalcandystore.com has a wide selection of different candy make with whole food ingredients, natural dyes, and no preservatives or hydrogenated oils. They have candy for all seasons, as well as birthdays too! It’s not sugar free though so remember to still brush the kids’ teeth! They also carry kosher, gluten free and Feingold-approved (synthetic free to control symptoms of ADHD) candy.

Another thing you might want to be careful about this Halloween is the use of makeup. Most of the makeup on the market contains really, seriously toxic (especially to kids) chemicals like lead, nickel, cobalt and chromium. I found this article about last year’s study, done on about 10 different face paints and they all contained lead, and over half of them contained other allergens. Kids are especially vulnerable to lead toxicity because their brains are developing and growing. It accumulates in the body and can have serious long term consequences, like concentration problems, learning disabilities, language/communication delays and poor fine motor skills. Toxicity almost never happens from a one-time exposure, according to this article, but over a period of time of being exposed to the lead. It’s still good to know there’s lead free stuff out there.

I found some great vegan, totally non-toxic halloween makeup kits at www.pinkquartzminerals.net, as well as some other great ideas for homemade halloween makeup at www.greenhalloween.org.

Just wanted to share, hope you find this info helpful! Dress up, eat candy and have fun!!

Danielle