WASHINGTON 鈥� The most welcome sight this Halloween for kids with severe food allergies may well be a teal pumpkin.
It’s part of an effort to make it a happy and safe Halloween for those whose allergies 鈥� particularly nuts, wheat, eggs and dairy 鈥� make Halloween candy, at best, a dicey proposition.
The is the brainchild of 聽(FARE), an advocacy group for the 15 million Americans with聽food allergies.
“The idea is to put a teal pumpkin outside your door to tell people this is a home where it is safe for food-allergic children to get a nonfood treat,” says , an allergist in Rockville, Maryland.
She says the idea is to promote safety and inclusion by providing kids聽with severe allergies聽a warm welcome and an alternative to sweets.
Nuts are probably the biggest source of trouble, but some聽children are also聽allergic聽to milk, soy and wheat 鈥� all of which can be hidden in a simple candy bar.
Roughly one in 13聽children in the United States is affected by a food allergy.聽That amounts to at least one per classroom, or one on every block.
“As the problem has grown, I think that awareness has grown along with that,” says Schreiber, who adds the rapid growth of the Teal Pumpkin Project offers proof.
If you can’t actually paint a pumpkin teal, FARE offers to signify participating households.
