Diabetes Daily Dose

Our first holiday with Type 1 diabetes was Halloween. Every day brought a new challenge, and Halloween with diabetes is no joke. Has Halloween been ruined forever? I just wanted to cry—and, well, I did cry—on Halloween, just like every day since the diagnosis.

Sugar feels like the enemy, and so much of Halloween revolves around that orange plastic pumpkin filled with fun-size candies of every kind. How many carbs are in each packet? I had no idea.

A few caring friends shared a list like the one here to help us navigate carb counting on Halloween.

Pro Tip: Collect a few mini packets of Skittles for your purse, school bag, sports bag, and car glove box—they make the perfect pick-me-up for lows.

Offering non-carb options is a great way to celebrate Halloween. Small toys, temporary tattoos, stickers, spider rings, or even bottles of water for trick-or-treaters are thoughtful ways to support those with diabetes or other dietary concerns.

Here’s a list of popular Halloween-size candies along with their approximate carbohydrate counts. These are based on “fun size” or “mini” packages (often about 15-20 grams each):

Chocolate-Based Candies

1. Snickers (Fun Size) – 10.5g carbs
2. Milky Way (Fun Size) – 11g carbs
3. 3 Musketeers (Fun Size) – 11g carbs
4. Twix (Fun Size) – 10g carbs
5. Kit Kat (Fun Size) – 10g carbs
6. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (1 Mini) – 5g carbs
7. M&M’s (Fun Size, Plain) – 10.5g carbs
8. M&M’s (Fun Size, Peanut) – 10g carbs
9. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate (Fun Size) – 8g carbs
10. Almond Joy (Fun Size) – 9g carbs

Fruit-Flavored and Other Candies

11. Skittles (Fun Size) – 15g carbs
12. Starburst (2 Pieces) – 8g carbs
13. Sour Patch Kids (Fun Size) – 11g carbs
14. Swedish Fish (Fun Size) – 11g carbs
15. Laffy Taffy (Mini) – 7g carbs
16. Smarties (1 Roll) – 6g carbs
17. Airheads (Mini) – 8g carbs
18. Jolly Rancher (1 Piece) – 6g carbs

Hard Candies and Lollipops

19. Tootsie Roll (Midgee) – 5g carbs
20. Tootsie Pop (Mini) – 11g carbs
21. Dum Dums Lollipop (1 Pop) – 5g carbs
22. Lifesavers Hard Candy (1 Piece) – 4g carbs
23. Werther’s Original (1 Piece) – 4g carbs

These numbers can vary a bit by brand and serving size, but this list should give you a reliable estimate for Halloween candy carb counts.

Happy Halloween.

Katelyn