Brought to you by Nuffnang and Colgate
Halloween whether you like it or not seems to be getting bigger every year. When I grew up we kind of knew about it but it was never something we celebrated or put any effort into. In years past I have been hesitant to do anything with the kids as I saw it as just another retail driven celebration but slowly the kids have been wearing me down lol
It seems to be growing as a bit of a thing in our area and I have to admit that I am a fan of anything that encourages a bit of community and an opportunity to talk to your neighbour. We most likely won’t be doing the trick or treating thing this year but I thought I would have a bit of fun with the kids and make some healthyish lunchbox treats and afternoon snacks “Halloween Style”.
One of the things about Halloween is the epic amount of lollies associated with the celebration. Did you know that tooth decay is the most common chronic disease for children, with child oral health in Australia actually getting worse and the crazy thing is tooth decay is almost entirely preventable.
There is some good news for the Halloween sweet treaties!! Colgate® has developed a breakthrough toothpaste that fights the #1 cause of cavities and reduces early decay by half – the Colgate® Maximum Cavity Protection with Sugar Acid NeutraliserTM. Sounds awesome right!!!
Did you know that 59 per cent of parents find it difficult to get their children to brush their teeth just once a day. Some other crazy stats are half of Australian parents (47 per cent) have had their children experience symptoms of tooth decay in the past 12 months including toothache, sensitive teeth and infection AND 72 per cent of Aussie parents find it difficult to get their children to eat less sugary foods which is even more challenging at Halloween.
One option is to try out the new Colgate® Maximum Cavity Protection with Sugar Acid NeutraliserTM toothpaste which reduces early decay by half (after six months use) and directly fights sugar acids in plaque, the number one cause of cavities. One thing to note though is this toothpaste is for ages 6+ so it is not suitable for smaller children.
Another thing you can do this Halloween is choose some healthier but still super fun options for the kiddos.
Below are 6 different fun Halloween food options I made for my kidlets without too many sugary lollies but still loads of fun!!
You Will Need (note: I did try and use things you would normally have lying around in your pantry
The idea below was super easy and involved a $2 pack of Halloween cookie cutters I got from the cheap shop. Bread plus cookie cutter plus some licorice cut up for faces and done 🙂 Literally took me 2 minutes and you could make the bread double layered and put any filling you like on it.
The next fun snacks I made with Jatz style biscuits (savoury) and Oreos (sweet). All I did was buy the packet of biscuits and some pretzel sticks. You cut the pretzel sticks in half and pull the Oreo apart and put the half sticks in the centre sicking out either side and put the top back on. I used a little bit of licorice for the eyes and stuck them on with a small amount of cream cheese spread. For the savoury option I put cheese spread in the middle of the two biscuits and did the same as the Oreo for everything else. This was a little bit more fiddley than the cookie cutter but still only took 5-10 minutes total.
My final Halloween food fun was with fruit. I personally enjoyed making these the most. The banana ghosts took a total of one minute. You literally peel it, then cut it in half and use the long licorice to make the face and eyes. The mandarin was the same you just peel it and use the licorice to make the eyes and a sliver of green apple for the stem. There are two options for the apple teeth due to peanut allergies. This is best made for afternoon tea if your kids love peanut butter as you can’t send them to school in the lunchbox. You cut two wedges of apple apply a generous amount of peanut butter or cheese spread to the either side of the wedge. You then place either yogurt fruit balls or blueberries along one of the wedges and then place the other wedge on top. Super easy and fun!!
Did you know based on Colgate research Aussie children will consume an estimated 22.3 million extra sugary treats or an average of 9 extra treats in comparison to an average of at least one treat per day at other times. Along side of that they found that 780,000 Aussie kids in the peak age group for trick or treating (6-14 year olds) have at least one cavity.
So I hoped you enjoyed my ideas for a bit of Halloween food fun with the kids that are some better options for their teeth and tummies than copious amounts of lollies.
Also make sure to check out Colgate’s New Maximum Cavity Protection with Sugar Acid NeutraliserTM toothpaste if you are looking for ways to stay on top of tooth decay in your kiddos as it sounds like it could be a great help. You can find out more about here
Written By School Mum aka Sam Shazzam
