Easter Egg Hunt Ideas for Food Allergy Families

Looking for ideas on how to do an Easter egg hunt safe for kids with food allergies?

Here are some ideas sure to inspire fun, allergy-friendly egg hunts your kids will love for years to come!

When I was a young food allergy mom, I sure wondered how to safely do egg hunts with food allergies.

Maybe you're here because you're wondering the very same thing.

Understandably, holidays with food allergies can be a little tricky.

After all, so many holidays include special food that oftentimes isn't safe for our allergies.

But with a little planning and preparation and inspiration, holidays can be just as special and memorable for your family, too! Pinky promise.

Over the years we've found many ways to keep our kiddos both safe AND included in holiday festivities.

Today, let's talk Easter egg hunts!

My sons will never forget the time I helped organized an allergy-safe public egg hunt through my church.

The egg hunt was top-8 allergy-free plus gluten-free.

To get it organized, a couple church moms and I started an event page on Facebook and got the word out.

There we listed recommended safe treat ideas to help the parents out.

Then parents brought twelve eggs per child they were bringing, filled with non-food or allergy-free treats.

At the hunt, children were allowed to hunt 12 eggs, all of which were safe!

Of course, parents checked everything over first.

So it didn't matter which eggs the children grabbed...and that's the part my boys most loved.

It was a total free-for-all and everything was ok.

A dozen fun, safe eggs for every kid, and they got to find them with no other rules than "only take 12".

Trinkets and coins were probably the most popular surprise.

And it was a fun community event we won't ever forget.

If you need something a little simpler than planning a community event...here are some other egg hunt ideas we've done in other years.

ALLERGY FRIENDLY EGG HUNT IDEAS

1. HUNT WITH FAMILY, COUSINS, NEIGHBORS, CLOSE FRIENDS

Small, private egg hunts are definitely easier with food allergies.

Consider meeting up with friends and family who know your allergy situation, and offer to host the gathering.

Make it completely allergy-safe and loads of fun.

2. DO A COMMUNITY HUNT WITH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

If you do decide to attend a big community hunt, make sure your child doesn't eat any treats until you have looked them over and traded out the unsafe items.

Maybe trade unsafe treats for safe ones.

Or you could possibly trade all the treats for one big prize like a toy.

You may want your child to wear a pair of gloves to prevent touch contact.

3. COLOR CODE EASTER EGGS

If you don't mind your food allergy child getting different snacks than everyone else,

you can color code eggs for a private hunt.

Put allergy-safe treats in one color and unsafe treats in other colors.

Have your food allergy child hunt just the safe color.

We've done this before with cousins, and it worked well.

4. CONSIDER A SCAVENGER HUNT

This is a great alternative to community egg hunts.

It can be a fun strategy thinking game for bigger kids in your yard or house, too.

And it can be a fun challenge with safe snacks or even a large toy or monetary prize at the end.

In our family, grandpa loves to organize the Easter egg scavenger hunt with fun, tricky clues.

This is a great way to make the fun last longer than 3 minutes.

Surprisingly, the teen cousins in our big family still look forward to grandpa's Easter scavenger hunt.

This is definitely a tradition that's stuck.

5. DO A NON-FOOD EGG HUNT

Some of my kids' favorite egg hunts have consisted of no food at all.

Instead, small trinkets, toys, coins, or dollars tucked into plastic eggs can be quite a novelty.

See a fun list of non-food ideas below!

Below is a list of fun surprises we've stuffed plastic eggs with for our kids, including both edible and non-food.

Just be sure to check all food labels for yourself because ingredients can change at any time.

I recommend having labeled packages at the hunt for double-checking before kiddos consume the treats.

FOOD-FREE EASTER HUNT TREATS

Stickers
Erasers
Sidewalk Chalk
Silly Puddy
Fun Band-Aids
Play Dough
Legos
Play Jewelry
Mini Stuffed Animal
Mini Figures
Collector Cards
Gift Cards
Experience Coupons
Quarters (if age appropriate)
Dollar Bills

MAINSTREAM EASTER TREATS FOR TODDLERS

PLEASE NOTE: Here at Milk Allergy Mom, we simply share products that work for our family. Please consult your own doctor before trying food, supplements, or other products. Also read all labels and call companies for the latest, most accurate product information.

Raisins
Cranberries
Teddy Grahams
Lorna Doone 100 Cal Packs
Cranberries
Teddy Grahams
Cuties
Mini Oreos Packs

MAINSTREAM DAIRY-FREE EASTER CANDY

Skittles
Fruit Snacks
Starbursts
Name Brand Jelly Beans like Jolly Rancher or Starbursts
Dum-Dum Suckers
Smarties
Smarties Candy Necklaces
Mambas
Classic Oreos
PEZ

NATURAL ALLERGY-FRIENDLY EASTER CANDY

Some of these are affiliate links at no extra cost to you.

Hope these egg hunt ideas are helpful to you!

You can save this Easter post on Pinterest for later.

And see more Easter posts below!

MORE EASTER IDEAS

Original Post: 4-11-14

More Holidays & Food Allergy

2 Comments

total12 says:

February 21, 2014 at 9:16 PM

Easter hunts as fun as possible, I keep in mind that it doesn't ALL have to be about chocolate and candy. easter egg hunts

June K says:

March 21, 2013 at 7:43 PM

In the beginning when my nieces and nephews were little we hid real eggs. As they got a little bit older and we decided a little treat in plastic eggs were better it ended up being coins - pennies and nickels in the eggs. As they got even older the amount of the coins increased. Can you believe they were in college and they still wanted to do the Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house? Of course by then there were dollars and even $5 bills in the plastic eggs. LOL. So watch out! 🙂

Easter Egg Hunt Ideas Dairy-Free