Easter for kids that can't have sugar…

[Gingerbread Mama]

I've taken my kids off all refined sugars, including candy. It has made a world of difference in my youngest. I tried giving then a small thing of candy at valentines and it was a disaster, he acted like he was on a drug trip. So I've decided NO candy for Easter. I bought Dr Who Lego type building set/mini figs and will put those in eggs. The other adults in my family are really being negative about this. Anyone else just NOT do candy on holidays? What ARE you doing.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Decorated Easter eggs don't have sugar! We don't do "no sugar" but I try to severely limit it and I understand how hard it can be dealing with adults on this issue.

[Plucky]

You may need to stay away from family members this Easter that are giving you a hard time about sugar. Maybe you can put in an activity type of toy, like those velcro mitts with a ball. Then you can exercise instead of focusing on candy.

[MrsBear]

Trading cards, Hexbugs, lego minifigures, ball, pillow-pet, etc. can all be used to fill an Easter basket sans candy. It's what I do, save for the small chocolate bunny I still put in there.

[Peaceful Isle]

You could get them an Easter dvd :)

[melissad2]

We still have candy here but BOY it is hard to find Easter candy without red #40!!

[LaxMom]

We don't avoid sugar, though there isn't very much candy consumption at our house, either. I do usually keep Yummy Earth organic lollipops around. Yes, total sugar, but no weird dyes (which are what tend to set my kids off), and I get the vitamin C variety, so there's some redeeming value. We also periodically get Surf Sweets gummy worms (usually for holidays). Again, no creepy ingredients.

 

Not that I'm trying to oppose your no-sugar lifestyle, just wanted to share that there are options that fall between deprivation and crack. ;)

 

We also put things like lip balm (even for the boys - they have lips, too), stickers, erasers, chalk, jewelry, and the like in stockings and baskets.

[mom4him]

We don't do candy. I take what I used to spend on candy and purchase them each a neat toy. I have found some candies made with honey that we can use but they are a special treat when we are in that store. I don't focus them on a holiday.

I agree with one of the other posters, if family are not understanding(been there) and not supportive of your decisions as parents, then time spend should be very minimal if at all. We have one family member that is not very supportive and we get together once in a while but not often. I have managed it to be not more than 3 or 4 times a year. It is difficult as they have our only grand children.:tongue_smilie:

[Gingerbread Mama]

Thank you for the replies. The only reason I'm not doing a lower sugar/somewhat healthier candy substitue is that (at this point) my bunch is still newly off sweets and they tend to be the "out of sight out of mind" kind of kids. So introducing any kind of candy right now would probably put us back at the whining for candy all the time stage, the stage we JUST got out of. Maybe I should have waited until after the Valentine's/Easter madness to start no sugar ;)

 

Our holidays aren't focused on candy, anyway, but they usually got a handful of sweets along with DVDs/Toys/Books/Etc.. At Easter, it was usually just a couple of pieces in the eggs for the egg hunt. So it isn't like this will be a 180 for them, just a little different. DS12, who is fairly good natured about the whole refined sugar deprivation thing, was asking today "So who's excited about coconut oil in their eggs tomorrow?" :lol: They will LOVE these Dr Who toys, they may ask if there is candy, but it won't be a big deal to them that there isn't any. Believe it or not, it's my MOTHER (the whole foods/organic/juicing/vitamin taking hippy LOL) who is the one questioning this. She has been 100% behind me on cutting the sugar, has run interference with my stepdad ("Have you not noticed that DS8 is now EATING REAL FOOD?!"), has been almost as strict as I have with the kids about the whole thing. When she found out what was going in their eggs, she said "And you aren't even giving them a LITTLE candy?" I guess it is that this is coming from HER that is throwing me for a loop. If it had been my stepdad, the man who refuses to believe in food allergies or cravings or anything, I would have laughed it off.

 

I hate to *avoid* her over this one thing, especially since she won't give them candy if she knows I don't want them to have it, but I know the minute one of them says "Really? No candy?" she will give me this knowing look. Which will hack me off no end LOL Now, my MIL, we avoid HER because of this. It is 100% processed junk-ola at her house and she WON'T change/keep anything else/feed them what I send for them when they go. She will probably bring by gallon sized bags of cheap candy at some point, thankfully my kids know to say thank you and hand it over to me to get tossed. They didn't like the junk stuff even when they were allowed candy.

 

I just remembered that I have a Disney movie tucked away. The Easter Bunny might leave that when he hides the Dr Who eggs (should I do all blue ones to make it look like the Tardis? LOL)

[jujsky]

We do sugar, but today I saw something cute for an Easter basket that contains no sugar. At Claire's they had packages of little stuffed peeps. They were bigger than the candy, but all mushed together in a package like the candy. If we weren't doing sugar, I'd get those.

[abbeyej]

Dye eggs -- it's a fun family activity with no sugar involved. :)

 

Ideas for baskets: books, card games, lip balm, child-sized gardening tools, seed packages, beach towel (if you live somewhere where it's already warm), religious items (jewelry, rosary beads, books, bookmarks), fun toothbrushes, playdoh, sidewalk chalk, art supplies...

 

For food in baskets: individual bags of healthier chips, bags of sunflower seeds or nuts, clementines, if he can handle the sugar in certain snack bars (Larabar or Clif Kids Z-bars maybe), you could do that...

[skirch]

We are doing a candy free egg hunt with friends this year. Things I've filled the eggs with are magnets, bookmarks, erasers, head bands, barrettes, key chains, tattoos, pin on buttons, cute nail brushes, silly putty (eggs inside eggs!), coins, glitter, lip balm, stickers, shoe laces, squinkies, bouncy balls... anything fun that will fit in an egg!

[myfunnybunch]

My kids get socks and books in their individual baskets. (They also get a little candy, but not much.)

 

The Easter bunny will leave a big basket in the middle of the table this year with a big bottle of bubbles, giant pack of bubble wands, and some sidewalk chalk. In the past he's left badminton rackets and birdies, a bucket of balls, or jump ropes and Frisbees.

 

Cat

[Farrar]

It seems like a food treat is still needed... Apples and oranges like they used to do in stockings? Or are there other non-sugar treat foods that you could do? Homemade baked goods? This will sound silly, but if we were doing no sugar, I think I'd put a loaf of fresh sourdough bread and a little package of raspberries in ds's basket along with the toys and trinkets.

[acurtis75]

There are some ideas here. I really like this blog for recipes, etc.

 

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/04/06/easter-without-the-junk/

[bbmom]

Are you open to non-refined sugar treats? If so, what about making a batch of paleo brownies or cookies to put in their baskets. My boys are each getting popsicle molds in their baskets which we will use to make sugar-free popsicles. I also made these which will fill some of the plastic eggs-

http://hip2save.com/2012/04/04/gluten-free-sweet-salty-paleo-bites-recipe/

http://paleoparents.com/2011/spunky-holiday-nonas-chocolate-easter-eggs/

http://paleoparents.com/2010/2387433136/

 

 

Other ideas I was thinking of-

Homemade lara bar balls

Homemade marshmallows- http://www.mommypotamus.com/homemade-marshmallow-recipe-gaps-paleo-scd/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mommypotamus+%28Mommypotamus%29

Frozen banana dark chocolarte bites

[Wendy Inman]

I don't really have any new ideas for you, just wanted throw out some support to you! :)

 

We're doing a fairly no candy easter. I made "Healthy Almond Joy" bars which are all whole foods for our treat. (There's coconut oil in them LOL) Going to wrap them individual and put them in the basket.. along with little Lego sets, some easter fling toy, and we're putting quarters in the plastic eggs!

[Dmmetler]

FWIW, my DD entered an Easter basket decorating contest last week. Her basket included eggs, plastic gems, a stuffed dragon, a fantasy novel, and various other fantasy-themed items. It wasn't until I looked at hers with the others that I realized that hers contained NO candy-and, when I thought about it, she'd decorated exactly the kind of basket she usually gets-toys, books, and stuff like that. This year, it's mostly legos and the new Shel Silverstein poetry book she's been longing for. Legos are great for egg hunts, too :).

[kwg]

Did anyone say puzzle pieces in the egg? I think that would be fun to find and then put together as a family.

[jec3113]

I took my DD off sugar a year ago and it has made all the difference in the world! Her attitude was so bad and I had run out of ideas for discipline so I cut sugar and high fructose corn syrup out of her life. That took care of most of her issues.

[skirch]

Did anyone say puzzle pieces in the egg? I think that would be fun to find and then put together as a family.

I love this and am filing it away for next year! Thanks!

[SweetMissMagnolia]

we severely cut back what we usually do for easter over the years-I mainly give him chocolate but not nearly as much as I used to buy......

[Cammie]

My mom buys all our Easter basket stuff in the US the day after Easter and ships it to us here in India. Due to the time lag between purchase and use...there is not much in the way of candy! What the kids had in their baskets this morning - Easter themed stickers, paper, goofy pens, stuffed animals, little Easter themed games, things for purses, etc. I forgot to go and get chocolate bunnies...and I don't think anyone missed them! So, if everyone in the house is getting the same...I don't think it will be a big deal to have no candy!

[kolamum]

We don't do sugar so the kids often get:

 

1 or 2 sugar-free chocolate treats either homemade or store bought

hot wheels

bubbles

chalk

play-dough

Club Penguin Cards

Books {one fictional; one Biblical}

Stuffed animal

favourite treat {ie pretzels, goldfish crackers, etc}

Other various things that may pertain to a Biblical reason for Easter

 

That is not to say they get all that each year. This year they got bubbles, club penguin cards & gift card to the website, sugar-free choco bunny, sugar-free choco egg, Comic Bible, fictional book, bubbles.

[CalicoKat]

Choceur chocolate at Aldi's is OK. They've also got the good European chocolates that are ingredient friendly too.

 

Holidays are hard.

[RoundAbout]

I'm a little late, but my mom puts coins in the eggs she sends. You could also use stickers, erasers, etc. Those party stores often have a lot of trinkets. If you need a treat for the basket something like potato chips might work - still treat-like but not sugary.

 

We have a no-sugar basket, but I do put some jelly beans in eggs for the hunt.

[rafiki]

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