Home and Garden

One Simple Pumpkin Color Could Save a Child's Halloween—And Maybe Their Life

trick or treating. the concept of health for children in the Halloween season. Copy space for your text — (EvgeniiAnd/ Getty Images)

Trick or treating is scary for some kids in a completely different way than you might think. That’s because one out of every 13 kids in the U.S. suffer from food allergies, which means many of the tiny candies dumped in their plastic pumpkins could be dangerous, or even fatal, for them to eat.

Luckily, the Teal Pumpkin Project is something you can do this year to help ensure that kids with food allergies are still able to have a great trick or treating experience.

By placing a teal pumpkin somewhere on your porch or steps, you signal that, in addition to candy, you have a separate bowl of non-edible treats to hand out.

If you’re stuck wondering what you could possibly give out other than candy, here’s a list of suggestions. Some favorites include spider rings, glow sticks, bracelets, or necklaces, coins (especially coins from other countries!), bubbles, fangs, stickers, finger puppets, little notebooks and kazoos.

If you decide to participate, you can add your address to an official map of Teal Pumpkin houses in order to let the parents of kids with food allergies know where to find you. There are also printable signs and fliers about the program that you can post or distribute to raise awareness in your neighborhood.

Senior writer Chris DeWeese edits Morning Brief, The Weather Channel’s newsletter.