Teal Pumpkin Project: Allergy-free Halloween trick-or-treating

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- You think about orange and black as being Halloween colors, but food allergy experts want to you to consider another color this year: teal.

That's because those experts want everyone handing out treats this year to incorporate teal as the color to represent allergy-free trick-or-treating.

Kids love going trick-or-treating, but Halloween can be scary for kids with food allergies.

Food-allergy advocates are promoting the "Teal Pumpkin Project." That's where you put out a teal-painted pumpkin during trick-or-treating to let kids know you've got allergy-free items.

"Some of the most popular Halloween candies have the highest allergens in them. You've got peanuts in them. You've got tree nuts like almonds, cashews, walnuts. You've got milk in everything, and so it can be very dangerous where one bite can be life-threatening for these children," said Dr. Sandra Hong, a pediatric allergist.

But that doesn't mean your little princess or pirate has to stand on the sidelines during Halloween.

Dr. Hong suggests parents of kids with food allergies remind children never to eat anything while on the trick-or-treat trail.

Everything needs to be inspected first, because there may be an unseen problem. For some kids with very severe allergies, just touching candy with peanuts in it could be an issue.

Also, don't let the kids eat anything without an ingredients label, and unfortunately that goes for something that's homemade.

But families can make Halloween fun for everyone just by providing allergy-free alternatives for kids.

"Maybe a couple different bowls. One of them will actually have non-food items and that can be things like Slinkies and little bouncy balls, glow bracelets, that children can go into if they have food allergies," said Hong.

Just make sure to have plenty of both on hand!

The Food Allergy Research and Education organization, the people behind the Teal Pumpkin Project, also suggest parents look at social media sites like Pinterest, for example, for some fun allergy-free non-food ideas.

Also, keep in mind some things, like Play-Doh, can contain wheat, so it's best to avoid handing that out.