Teal Pumpkins Helping Children Stay Safe on Halloween

A teal pumpkin indicates a food allergy-safe stop for trick-or-treaters.

Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween pastime. Participants are putting bright blue-colored pumpkins on their porches to keep the tradition fun and safe by offering children allergen-free alternatives to the standard giveaways of mini candy bars, taffy, peanut butter cups, candy corn, and liquorish.

Veronica LaFemina, vice president of communications for FARE, said people in all 50 states are participating in the project and, so far, households in several other countries have pledged to offer nonfood treats at their homes.

“Halloween is a fun, community holiday and the Teal Pumpkin Project is building on this spirit of community by making Halloween a safer and happier experience for all”, LaFemina told TODAY Parents.

While most of the kids knocking on your door will want the chocolate treats, you will help encourage those children with allergies, who won’t likely knock on your door, to instead approach with a smile. It’s a gesture that families with an allergy issue appreciate. “I’m very hopeful that this year we’ll see a few teal pumpkins”, said a hopeful Hayes. “She can eat peanuts and she loves peanut butter….” She said that she had never participated in the project before, but often had non-candy treats for younger children whose parents preferred them. “That is what would happen if she ate something she is allergic to”.

“Then the hives broke out on his face, started to go down his neck and onto his trunk”, she says.

Given her daughter’s problem, Zawadski said, she’s sympathetic to other parents of allergic kids, particularly those with multiple allergies.

Nate Robertson is nine years old, and like most kids his age, should ideally be enjoying Halloween festivities next week.

“When he was younger, we used to go around ahead of time to the houses he would trick or treat at, put a nice little dinosaur sticker on the bag”.

After finding out their daughter had a severe tree nut allergy, the Holbrooks in hindsight realize they missed signs of the affliction when she was younger.

“It’s a special moment, to see them be able to participate in Halloween like all their friends”, she said.

“People think of food allergies and they say, oh that’s like a gluten intolerance, or that’s a tummy ache”, said Rizzo.