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 approxi-mately 8% of the world's child population. Being the parent of a child with allergies may lead to concerns, and af-fect everyday life in the family. The aim was to synthesize and describe parents' experiences of living with foodallergies 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 ad-olescents, 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, aftertheir child had theirfirst reaction and had become allergic, a life threatening experience. They tried to live an or-dinary family life and parents had to learn how to be one-step ahead and understand early signs. The family's so-cial life was also influenced. Parents asked for support and information from health professionals and moreknowledge and skills increased parents' manageability.Conclusion:Parents need support and a seamless encounter with health professionals, with multidisciplinary col-laboration and knowledge sharing to develop the parents' self-efficacy.Implications:Health professionals must provide information and support parents on their path through thehealth-care system in having a child with a food allergy.