[caption id="attachment_3221" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Mini Glee Gum from our round up of 10 alternatives to big box Halloween candy. "] [/caption] I am so impressed with our blogger Gina Bell's ideas for controlling the candy in her household. There are Ziploc bags, a Book Fairy, the whole thing is very well-planned and highly impressive. In my home though, things are a little less disciplined. This is what it looks like: 1. Kid empties trick or treat loot on floor. 2. Mom roots through it to pull out all the nut-containing chocolate, due to son's anaphylactic peanut and tree nut allergy AND any chocolates and candies that may contain nuts or have been processed at a plant that processes food with nuts. 3. Kid doesn't like about one-third of the treats anyway (green lollipops, sour candies, cheese twists) so those get sorted out. 4. Voila, not that much is left, and I let my son eat what he wants. I tell him that I want him to be healthy, so he shouldn't eat too much. He's pretty good at rationing himself. So I'm not being entirely truthful here, because, honestly, the real way I control without controlling is that we don't go trick or treating to that many houses. In a few years, I'm sure the little guy will be putting his foot down, or perhaps putting the pedal to the metal to hit up more homes. We'll see. How do you control the candy at your house? -Helen