Sarah Howard
Sarah Howard (nee Tackett) has dedicated her career to supporting the T1D community ever since she was diagnosed with T1D while in college in May 2013. Since then, she has worked for various diabetes organizations, focusing on research, advocacy, and community-building efforts for people with T1D and their loved ones. Sarah is currently the Senior Manager of Marketing at T1D Exchange.
Sarah and her husband live in NYC with their cat Gracie. In her spare time, she enjoys doing comedy, taking dance classes, visiting art museums, and exploring different neighborhoods in NYC.
The strategy that worked/didn’t work was to boil the test tube and watch it turn brown. Not recommended. This is an old timer’s inside joke. 😖
I was a child with T1D who went trick-or-treating in the 90’s. When I was little I wasn’t allowed to eat any candy while trick-or-treating (unless we suspected my blood sugar was going low). When we got home I was allowed to save my favorites and then the rest my parents counted and traded for money (I think pennies or nickels; I can’t remember). The next weekend my dad would take me to the toy store so I could buy something with the money. I assume my parents ate the candy. Af for what I’d saved, I was generally allowed one piece per day, again unless my blood sugar went low. When I got older I was allowed to keep all my candy, but was still only allowed to eat a couple pieces per day.
Increased temp basal, periodic correction boluses early as needed, encourage faster walking to help keep BG under control.
I lived in a small village with only 86 people so everyone knew I was diabetic. Everyone would either give me coins, gum or fruit when I would go trick or treating as a young child in the late 1950s.
Don’t stop living; check blood glucose throughout the day and night. Correct the highs as needed.
I did not have T1D as a child.
I never ate candy as a kid, and today I’m extremely thankful my parents never allowed me to.
I didn’t eat the candy. I don’t think that counts as a strategy.
As a kid, I would trade some of my sugary treats for my sister’s trident gum. The treats left over would be eaten in moderation, so no crazy spikes
I was diagnosed in 1945. There were no strategies back then because there were no guidelines for controlling blood sugar. Take your pig insulin and don’t eat sugar. Those were the only rules I had to follow.
I went Trick-or-Treating but had to give all my candy to my brothers and sisters. It was terrible.
Same for me. I stopped going.
Sorry you had to give all of your candy away. My parents weren’t that strict so I never really felt deprived.
As a chid I out to keep Al chips, apples an oranges. We didn’t count carbs in 1063 but calories. I also got a piece of candy. My neighbors who knew I was a diabetic gave me sugar free candy or gum.
I had diabetes as a child, and it has been over 20 years since I have gone trick-or-treating so the protocols were very different then. I would eat a fairly large dinner before going out. Our half-way point was a relative’s house 3 blocks away where I could have a snack if I felt my BG was dropping (no cgm, no checking glucose–yes, it was pretty inaccurate). My mom would offer to pay me for about half of my candy (5 cents a piece) to lessen the temptations. Then I was allowed 1 or 2 pieces as a treat after dinner daily, taking into account the Exchanges counting technique I used back then (instead of carb counting, I was supposed to eat a predetermined amount from certain food groups each meal, plus up to 5 “extras” = sugary things, diet soda pop, etc, while having the same amount of insulin twice daily).
My daughter usually actually runs low during trick-or-treating from all the running around. We let her keep all the candy that she can as she also has celiac disease but only let her have a few pieces that night and just bolus for them as needed. Then they generally have one piece a day with a meal till they run out.
My son goes low as he walks as much as three miles with his dad and friends. He eats a piece or two of fast acting, then, later a piece of chocolate. After he has fun sorting all the rest, most is donated to a dentist who sends to the troops. We keep some of the small fast acting pieces for occasional use for lows. Small chocolate bars, kisses, are good for stabilizing a ↘️. Peppermint Pattie’s are diced up and used on top of chocolate almond flour muffins (Simple Mills) which makes a nice “frosting “. Side note: just found candy from last Halloween, Valentines Day and Easter!
Got it when i was 12. Trick or treated that year, then stopped. Did I eat the candy? No memory…..
Feed a low carb dinner right before, and we trade out traditional candy for low carb alternatives when he gets back. If he gets low during trick or treating, he can eat certain candies he got!
As a child with T1D, I did not like how candy made me feel, so I kept lifesavers, skittles and jolly ranchers as low treatmentsvand my parents and I worked out a “buy back” program for the rest.
I was diagnosed when I was ten years old in 1972. All we had during my childhood was urine testing. It didn’t give an exact number to give correction boluses, and we didn’t have the technology to carb count, so for me, I did what my Dr advised and ate the candy during the day when I was active. I wasn’t put on a restricted diet because my Dr felt it would lead to rebellion and feelings of resentment towards my T1D, and my family.
As others have mentioned, there really wasn’t much of anything in the way of strategies to manage glucose before the past few decades. When I was diagnosed in 1965 at the age of 3, there was only urine testing, which was a feeble alternative to try to discern blood glucose levels. My mother was never strict with my diet, but I wasn’t allowed to drink sugary soft drinks. I remember eating quite a bit of candy growing up, and Halloween was similar to the highest of holy holidays in my world view. Lord knows what I would do now with a child during Halloween: Probably try to ration it a bit, at the very least. Parents of T1Ds, you have my sympathy. Good luck getting through the sugar bacchanalia!
Halloween was my favorite holiday because of the costumes/makeup I could design. I was 8 when dx in 1955 and allowed to go with neighborhood kids but couldn’t accept or eat any of the candy offered. My treat bag filled with pennies, nickels, apples and gum. By the next Halloween I had experienced a year + filled with “no you can’t do that because of your diabetes” and decided not to go. Thinking back all of those years the memory still stings. It was definitely not a good solution.
We gave legos in exchange for candy collected. Sugar free candy and gum are what our sweet neighbors gave our child. Also allowing a pick of one or two candies and adjusted insulin as needed.
Oops, I answered no, but was 14 when diagnosed so part trick-or-treating.
I was diagnosed at 6 years of age, in 1951, lived in a rural area, and simply did not go trick-or-treating.
Oops, answered other. Should have been I have no children with nor myself have T1 as a child. Over the years, though, I have given out individual packets of pretzels and pencils rather than candy. My problem was staying away from my children’s stash of chocolate!
Halloween was more than candy. I loved the costumes and the fun we had running around at night. I was dx in 1962 at the age of 10, so there were few reliable tools. I ate a bit of candy, bu I was very choosy. Most of it was given away to a children’s center.
I’m 71 but when I was a child my Dad would give me cash for my candy. I think he was generous to lessen the hurt of trick or treating for candy which I couldn’t eat. I would keep peanuts & any little boxes of pretzels.
When our son came home after trick or treating we sorted the candy into pieces he could use to treat lows, those he could work into his meal plan and those that were problematic. We would buy the candy that was problematic and mete out the rest appropriately. He liked getting the money. In school also when he answered a question and won a treat he would auction it off to his classmates.
I like the auctioning off of his treats won in school. Wish I’d have thought of that.
I went trick or treating as a child with T1D in the 1960s. Neighborhood kids got dressed up in homemade Halloween costumes, with or without character masks, and my younger brother and I went out as part of the gang. When I got home my mom would go through the trick or treat bag and allow me to keep the little boxes of raisins, bags of Fritos or chips, apples, peanuts, and popcorn that were given out. All the candy treats I collected were distributed to my brother and other kids in the neighborhood and I was given $5.00 for giving my candy away.
It is sort of funny how many people even today think that raisins will raise your blood sugar less than candy (although I do consider them more healthful than candy). People offered me raisins too. Nowadays I use raisins to raise my blood sugar in case of hypoglycemia.
There was no blood glucose testing when I was young to go treat or treating. Our parent’s allowed us chose the candy we wanted to keep for low’s and they bought the rest from us. My Dad then took it to work to share. We also had neighbors that made homemade treats to hand out, got to love living in a very small town in the 70’s, who make special ones for us.
I had diabetes as a child but that was in the 1970’s. Only urine testing then, so what my blood sugar numbers were is just a presumption. I tried staying away from pixie sticks and candies that are basically pure sugar, but I know I did eat a few pieces of chocolate now and then.
Two Strategies: 1. Give daughter ‘option’ of 1 or 2 pieces/day (make candy last, give decision-making ability and accountability, and forcing prioritization of options); and 2. purchasing candy from daughter – especially helpful for culling out stuff she didn’t like AND having her evaluate on a ‘business case’ basis priorities, saving, and long-term approach.
Never learned to like candy, so it was not relevant for me.
I traded my candy to my siblings for cards, games stickers and stamps. They were old games (: z
As a child my mom drove me to the neighbours who had saved me an apple 🍎
When I was a child with T1D (40+ years ago), the neighbors all bought sugar-free candies for me.
T1D since 1966 so majority of my childhood meant not eating a lot of the candy I was given trick-or-treating. I saved all the candy for when I had ‘insulin reactions’ (was we called them back in the day). Back in my childhood, I took one shot in the morning and had no clue what my current BG was, so no strategies other than lots of exercise so my urine sample wasn’t the dreaded bright orange 4+
When I was a kid, I trick-or-treated, but the candy was taken away and given to me piece-meal (one or two per day.)
I loved dressing up for Halloween and trick or treating as a child, but I didn’t eat the candy. One house gave me apples, so I didn’t feel different.
I was a lucky kid back in the 80s/90s. I used to bring a pillowcase full of candy home and trade it in with my parents for toys. It was way better, and more fun, than just a bunch of candy.