Food allergies are a part of modern parenting, whether your child has allergies themselves or is in any kind of classroom setting or plays sports where snacks are shared. Besides the directive from the pediatrician on when to give our kids peanut butter for the first time, allergies weren’t something we thought of too much until my first son started preschool. Being “Snack Mom” for the first time with a child who has an allergy in the class was a ton of very worthwhile pressure. Before having kids, the only time I was meticulous about what was in food I prepared or offered was for our vegetarian friends and boy, did I ask some dumb questions ahead of that meal. Years later, while throwing a birthday party with a party goer with a nut allergy, we found out just how complicated it can be to avoid allergens and this was only one meal and dessert.

Now, as I’m fully entrenched in all things kid, my kids have multiple friends with serious allergies. Some bring their own pizza and dessert to birthday parties, some sit in a special place in the lunchroom because as my youngest would say, they are “electric” to peanuts, and some collect candy on Halloween and don’t get to eat it. Jessica Brown, Edmonds mother of two, was one of those kids who couldn’t eat everything she collected and she remembers, “It was Skittles or nothing.” Now, as a mother of a child with a food allergy, one different than her own, Brown is hoping to see some changes leading to more inclusion in Downtown Edmonds Halloween Trick-or-Treat Night.

Brown wrote to the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce “to share the Teal Pumpkin Project link with the downtown Edmonds businesses participating in Halloween,” explaining that “The Teal Pumpkin Project is a national movement to get homes and businesses to participate in giving away non-candy items so that children with food allergies may participate in trick-or-treating.”

Brown’s request of the chamber to share the Teal Pumpkin project information and and possibly adding a link to the downloadable sign to the event’s webpage was declined for logistical reasons. “We unfortunately don’t have emails and a way to contact those people who are participating in our trick-or-treat,” Chamber President and CEO Greg Urban said, adding “we won’t discourage anyone from offering healthy and safe options to people.”

Belly and Co. owner Kristina Freeberg, who is friends with Brown, will be participating this year, offering non-food treats during the downtown event Halloween Night. It feels great for Brown to have at least one option for trick-or-treating as her oldest, now 3, sees kids knocking on doors and getting candy in his favorite TV shows and she doesn’t think the idea of staying home to greet trick-or-treaters is going to fly this year. Our own Halloween crew includes more than one child with an allergy and — like Brown did with her cousins as a kid — some trades are made that are beneficial for both sides.

I spoke with Brown about how businesses and residents alike can participate in the Teal Pumpkin project. According to FoodAllergy.org, 1 in 13 children has a food allergy and as Brown pointed out, that’s about two in each classroom. So if you get kids knocking on your door, some are likely have a food allergy.

Those wishing to participate in the project at home can put out a teal pumpkin (Brown says they are available at Michael’s, among other places) or download a sign alerting kids you are participating. These kids would then choose from a bucket full of fun non-food items, separate from the candy bucket for those with more extreme allergies who can’t even come in contact with some foods.

Brown suggests “stickers, glow sticks, pencils, spider rings” and says FoodAllergy.org has even more options. I was able to find glow sticks and bracelets at Target for the same price as a bag of candy; in our case, it cost less than the organic dye-free bag we bought because — as we found out last week — one of ours has a terrible, though non-threatening, reaction to food dye.

You can celebrate Halloween in Edmonds from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 31. There will be a costume contest, a flash mob, a ton of candy and an estimated 5,000 “spidermen, spooks, princesses, pumpkinheads, and their parents.”

If you’re looking to get an early start on Halloween, on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 2 p.m., you can check out the Costume Slam at the Edmonds Library. They will provide tools and supplies to create your own costume in an hour or less, and the event will end with a runway-style costume contest with prizes for the top three designs. This event is for “kids, tweens, teens, & adults!” For more information you can call them at 425-771-1933.

— By Jennifer Marx

Jen Marx, an Edmonds Mom of two young boys, is always looking for a fun place to take the kids that makes them tired enough to go to bed on time. You can find her on Twitter trying to make sense of begging kids to ” just eat the mac n cheese” @jen_marx.