New research shows that food allergy bullying is not just a problem for food-allergic kids but also their parents too.
“We know children are often bullied about their food allergies,” says Dannielle Brown, MHS, lead author of the study. “What we weren’t aware of was how many parents are bullied by multiple sources. Of the 252 parents or guardians we surveyed, more than 17% said they had been bullied.”
Parents of children 4-17 years (school-age children) in the survey found it was helpful to take action to stop the bullying. 13% of parents/guardians spoke with their child, 7% spoke with the offender or the offender’s parent, 17% spoke with a teacher and 15% spoke with a principal or administrator. Almost 50% of those who did something to stop food allergy bullying said it was helpful.
Another important finding in the survey was that while there were no significant differences in the percentages of Black and white children who were bullied around food allergies.
“No child or their parent should be bullied because of their food allergies,” says food allergy researcher Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, ACAAI member and one of the lead researchers on the study. “Having a food allergy puts tremendous stress on the entire family and any form of bullying makes life that much harder.”
