You Can't Hold Their Hand the Whole Time: A Qualitative Study of Parents' Experiences of Adolescents With Food Allergy.
Meg O' Sullivan, Rachel Flynn, James O' Mahony and 2 others
PMID 40349113WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of adolescents with food allergy described constant worry, family restrictions, and difficulty trusting their child to manage allergies.
Misconceptions and poor confidence in using adrenaline persisted despite years of experience.
Key findings
01Parents described constant worry about their child's food allergy, with anxiety rising when the child was away from them.
02Parents restricted family activities and food choices to feel safer, while also trying to keep their adolescent from feeling different.
03Several parents said they did not give adrenaline during an anaphylactic episode and later learned from allergy staff that it should have been used.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Participants were recruited from one hospital allergy service, so the findings may not reflect families in other settings. Demographic details such as age, race, ethnicity, and education were not collected, so the context of the sample is limited. Most participants were mothers, so fathers' experiences may be less represented. The study describes parents' accounts and does not measure clinical outcomes or test an intervention.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests. Funding was provided by University College Cork.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as evidence that any education or transition programme works. The study describes parents' experiences and did not test an intervention or measure patient outcomes.