Halloween Tips for Special-Needs Families

Children with special needs may need some extra magic to make their Halloween a treat. Find foods and finery especially intended to make the day...

Children with sensory integration problems may balk at scratchy costumes, itchy makeup and pinchy headgear. Making a costume that puts a premium on comfort will make your little ghoul happy -- and being able to use the clothes again after will make you happy, too.

Looking for good Halloween costume ideas for a child in a wheelchair? These sites offer inspiration, photos, and specific instructions for outfits that either disguise the ride or use it as part of the ensemble. Use them to get your little goblin in fine trick-or-treating form.

Your child decides at the last minute that he wants to go trick-or-treating after all, or chooses bedtime to inform you that there's a pageant tomorrow and she's in it. You have no time and no special supplies to make a costume, but a costume is quickly called for. Here's how to throw together something, using items you have around the house,...

For children with diabetes, food allergies, Prader-Willi syndrome, and other special needs, gorging on Halloween candy can bring more than a tummy ache -- it can be a serious health risk. These sites offer suggestions, strategies, and recipes for making the night less spooky for kids whose diet needs to be carefully watched.

If your child doesn't speak, get the "trick or treat" message out this Halloween with cards or a sign that do all the talking.

Children with special needs like diabetes or food allergies may not be able to partake of traditional treats on Halloween. But they can still have fun trick-or-treating, and do a little good on the way.

If you're child's on a restricted diet, bounces off the wall with too much sugar, or just needs to avoid a long stay in the dentist's chair, big batches of high-calorie, high-sugar, hyper-loading sweet stuff can be a crisis. Rather than empty the trick-or-treat bag (or Easter basket, or goody bag) into the trash when the kids aren't looking --...

Halloween isn't the easiest of holidays for kids with special needs, what with scratchy costumes and forbidden foods and too much social stress....

Maybe it was the school party with treats for everyone but your food-allergic child. The costume that set off all your child's sensory alarms. The neighbor who couldn't accept your family's need to celebrate the holiday in your own way. The trick-or-treaters faking a disability like your child's for laughs. If you've found fright in unexpected...

Share your strategies for using up leftover Halloween candy -- or Easter candy, or Valentine candy, or goody-bag treats -- without putting your child into sugar overload.