Halloween is right around the corner.
Children like 7-year-old Maxwell Henderson and 8-year-old Phallon Beach will be saying those magic words.
“Trick or treat,” Maxwell said with a smile. “Give me something good to eat,” Phallon added.
Maxwell and Phallon's mothers, Robynne Craddock and Robyn Buckley, have been best friends for over 20 years and make it a group activity when it comes to their kids and the holiday.
"I love taking the kids trick-or-treating,” Craddock said. “We go every year."
Dr. Dustin Miller with Mosiac Life Care said this is a time where children develop new allergies.
“We have a lot of new candies that we're not typically buying off the shelf that are given out there during Halloween,” Dr. Miller said. “They're coming in contact with a lot of new things, and so they may not know that they're allergic to this because they don't, they haven't had it before.”
Dr. Miller said it’s important to monitor what your child had.
“Especially if they have a known allergy, you want to make sure you look at every wrapper and look for the labels that indicate whether or not it was made in a factory that contains the allergen,” Dr. Miller said. “If it's a new allergy that you're not expecting, if you know what your kid has eaten at night, that certainly helps us when it comes to making that diagnosis of what they're allergic to.”
For Maxwell, who has a peanut allergy, his mom said it’s something that they’re both cautious of.
"It makes you definitely want to read the labels because sometimes when products are produced, they might be produced in a place that contains a certain allergen that your child may be allergic to,” Buckley said. “So you just never know unless you read the back of the label."
Even if your child doesn't have any allergies, Dr. Miller said it's important to keep a close eye out.
"New food allergies can present in a lot of different ways,” he said. “Anywhere from a small skin rash or an itch all the way up to tightness in the throat, closing of the throat."
Craddock said checking the wrappers is one of the first things she and the children do when they get back home from the Halloween festivities.
"We'll dump it all out and go through it and make sure whatever is out of the wrapper, goes in the trash and stuff like that," she said.
Dr. Miller said if there’s any kind of reaction, even if it’s something your child doesn’t need emergency care for, you should visit your doctor.
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Rae Daniel can be reached at Rae.Daniel@KSHB.com.
