Parents Experiences Raising a Child with Food Allergy; A Qualitative Review

Abstract

Problem: Food allergies are one of the fastest growing public health concerns without a cure, affecting approximately 8% of the world's child population. Being the parent of a child with allergies may lead to concerns, and affect everyday life in the family. The aim was to synthesize and describe parents' experiences of living with food allergies in families when one of the children has a food allergy.

Eligibility criteria: A systematic search using subject terms and text words was performed in Cinahl (Ebsco), Swemed+, Medline (OVID) and Scopus in October 2017. The search was limited to parents with children and adolescents, for the years from 2006 to October 2017.

Sample: One hundred and forty articles were screened and 24 were included.

Results: A meta-summery of the results from the included studies were conducted. The parents lived in fear, after their child had their first reaction and had become allergic, a life threatening experience. They tried to live an ordinary family life and parents had to learn how to be one-step ahead and understand early signs. The family's social life was also influenced. Parents asked for support and information from health professionals and more knowledge and skills increased parents' manageability.

Conclusion: Parents need support and a seamless encounter with health professionals, with multidisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing to develop the parents' self-efficacy.

Implications: Health professionals must provide information and support parents on their path through the health-care system in having a child with a food allergy.

Keywords: Adolescents; Child; Experiences; Food allergy; Parents; Review.