Kristen Jordan Shamus, Gannett Michigan

Food allergies affect one in 13 U.S. children, according to Food Allergy Research and Education

Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room

Food allergies in children rose 50% between 1997 and 2011.

A teal-painted pumpkin sits on the front porch of Julia Lupo's house in Chesterfield Township. Christine Habib's home in Rochester has an assortment of teal gourds. Stephanie Kilyanek's Ypsilanti porch has a pumpkin, too.

Teal pumpkins aren't all the rage this year because of some style trend. It's all about saving the lives of kids with food allergies.

Mia Lupo was 2½ when she first put a Snicker's bar in her mouth. Hives and a rash soon spread all over her tiny body. She began to vomit, sneeze and cough. Her mother took her to the emergency room for treatment of a life-threatening allergic reaction.

"I was that mom who used to think the peanut moms were crazy, and now I'm that crazy peanut mom," said Lupo, who learned in June that Mia is allergic to nuts and fish.

Halloween is frightening for Lupo and other parents of kids with food allergies. It's a time of year when candy that could be deadly to their kids is practically everywhere. So she and Habib, Kilyanek and other parents from around the country are part of a campaign to make a holiday filled with potentially dangerous sweet treats safer for all.

Called the Teal Pumpkin Project, the idea is to encourage people to offer nonfood treats like stickers, glow sticks, Halloween rings and stamps to trick-or-treaters with food allergies. Displaying a teal pumpkin on your front porch this Halloween will let kids know you've got allergy-free treats for them.

"My child gets upset, to the point of tears, if there's not something there for her," said Lupo. "Every child should be able to get something, even if it's something little, if they're going to participate."

Inclusion, not exclusion, is what the Teal Pumpkin Project is all about.

"It really does give me hope," said Habib, whose 5-year-old son, Elias, has a peanut allergy. "On Halloween, he goes trick-or-treating, just as other kids do. He puts it in his basket, and knows he can't have it until we get home and go through it. He knows I'm going to have to take some of it away.

"I think part of the Teal Pumpkin Project is to bring awareness to those who are unaware of food allergies. It's kind of something people can't relate to. They don't understand how severe a nut allergy can be if it's ingested. It'll be great to have someone come to our porch on Halloween and say, 'Oh, my gosh, I've been seeing this everywhere. What is it?' It'll allow us to help educate people and maybe next year, they'll do it, too."

In addition to passing out peanut-free candy, Habib said she'll have a separate bowl full of pencils, stickers, tattoos, spider rings, stencils and crayons to hand out to kids like Elias.

"I think this year it'll be fun for my kids — more fun for them than last year," she said.

The idea for the Teal Pumpkin Project came from the Food Allergy Community of East Tennessee, which started the campaign locally last year. The national nonprofit Food Allergy Research and Education organization, or FARE, got wind of the group's idea, and took it national this year.

"We are excited to see so many people posting photos of their teal pumpkins online," said Veronica LaFemina, spokeswoman for FARE. Though there's no way to gauge precisely how many people are taking part in the project this year, LaFemina said, "what I can tell you is that our first two Facebook posts about the campaign have reached 5.2 million people and were shared 52,000 times.

"So we're thrilled because we know this means there'll be a lot of people embracing the Teal Pumpkin Project on the day of Halloween itself, and it's really thrilling for the one in 13 kids in the United States with a food allergy."

And those numbers are on the rise, said LaFemina, noting that there's been a 50% rise in the number of children with food allergies since 1997.

This is the first year Stephanie Kilyanek's son, Harry Northway, will go trick-or-treating. He's got a nut allergy as well, and at 22 months old, he doesn't understand that if he puts a treat with nuts into his mouth, it could kill him.

"He can talk, but he can't say, 'I can't eat this or I can't have that,' " Kilyanek said.

"Some people think we're being too serious, but with so many kids having allergies these days, it seem as if it's better to be safe than sorry. Getting a nonfood treat is better than no treat, in my opinion. ... I'm trying to look at it optimistically. They're not missing out on candy. They're getting something better."

Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.

How to join the Teal Pumpkin Project

To learn more about the Teal Pumpkin Project, or to download a poster to put up at your house this Halloween, go to www.foodallergy.org/teal-pumpkin-project.

FARE suggests those who'd like to participate ought to paint a pumpkin teal to place by the doorstep and print out a copy of the allergy-free sign on its website so people will know you have allergy-free treats. If you'd also like to pass out candy, keep it in a dish separate from the nonfood treats.