Easter is about a week away from now. Although this holiday does have religious significance for many families, from a child’s perspective, Easter has a different focus. Most children look forward to decorating hard boiled eggs, and to eating a lot of Easter candy. Parents of children who have food allergies are going to have to be extra careful about what kinds of candy ends up in their child’s Easter basket.
If you live in Australia or New Zealand, then you need to be aware of a recall of some candies from Lindt. These Easter candies contain an “undisclosed allergen”, which, in this case, means that these candies may contain peanuts, even though it doesn’t say so on the label. Some of these products include the Lindt Lindor Assorted Egg Bags and Egg Tubes, the Lindt Gold Bunny and Friends Cube and Tin Tube, and the Lindt Lindor egg-carton boxes.
If your child is allergic to peanuts, then you will want to avoid these products. I haven’t been able to find any information that tells me if these same Lindt products that are being sold in the United States contain peanuts, or if they do not.
If your child has ADHD, you may want to avoid the Easter candy that contains certain food dyes. There is a belief that certain food dyes can cause hyperactivity in children, and that children who have ADHD are especially sensitive to these food dyes. The evidence for this is inconclusive, but that doesn’t stop some parents from worrying about it. If you wish to avoid candy with food dyes, you may want to skip the traditional jelly beans, and offer chocolate that doesn’t have food dyes, or perhaps a healthier choice of sunflower seeds or raisins instead.
Gimbals is a company that makes allergy free candy. They make jelly beans that are safe for kids who have food allergies to eat. This is because Gimbals facilities are free from peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, gluten, soy, fish, and shellfish. They take measures to prevent cross contamination. Try their gourmet jelly beans that come in 41 flavors, are trans fat-free, gelatin-free, and kosher.
Indie Candy makes all natural and allergy friendly candies. Their in house artisan candies are also free from eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, dairy, fish and shellfish. Their candy is also kosher, and vegan and Feingold friendly. Their candy is free from artificial colors (or dyes), artificial flavors, and preservatives. You can search the website based on the allergen you are trying to avoid, or by selecting a type of candy from a list.
For Easter, parents may want to check out their Peter Rabbit Chocolate Lollipop, which is made of a dairy free dark chocolate and is shaped like an bunny. Or, get the Funny Bunny Chocolate Lollipop, which is made the same way, but is in the shape of a cartoon rabbit head, instead.
Image by Pat Durkin on Flickr