PARENTS who are told their children are suffering from food allergies suffer higher levels of anxiety than people who are told they have cancer, according to research.
Psychologists uncovered shocking levels of stress among parents attending allergy clinics with their children and said many continued to suffer the physical and mental effects of stress for weeks or months afterwards.
Dr Rebecca Knibb, a senior l
ecturer in health psychology at the University of Derby, is calling for more to be done to examine the way parents are dealt with, claiming they often receive too much information to take in during a single consultation.
Parents attending an allergy clinic can spend up to two hours receiving detailed information about allergies, being taught how to use an "Epipen" which administers a potentially life-saving dose of adrenalin, and taught resuscitation techniques.
Dr Knibb surveyed 120 parents at allergy centres in Nottingham and Birmingham and found 36 per cent showed clinical levels of anxiety.
The average levels of stress were well above the average of those diagnosed with cancer and people involved in the study showed similarly high rates of depression.
"These figures reflect the anguish that parents go through when they discover their child has a food allergy," said Dr Knibb. "They suffer great anxiety at what this might entail for their child’s health and welfare."
Parents of children with an average age of six were surveyed for the study at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC), in Nottingham, and Birmingham Heartlands Hospital. Respondents filled in questionnaires about their worries in the weeks prior to an allergy clinic appointment and again several weeks after.
Their youngsters suffered from allergies including intolerance to cows’ milk, pulses and nuts, and had complained of breathing difficulties, facial swelling, rashes and vomiting.
Dr David Thomas, a consultant paediatrician at the QMC, said: "The advice to different families has many common factors, such as understanding the range of foods involved, avoidance and appropriate medication. It also needs to be individualised, seeking out each family’s particular questions about and responses to the diagnosis."
Cases of anaphylactic shock caused by food allergy have risen by 300 per cent over the past decade and account for about 30 deaths per year in the UK.
Meanwhile, government inspectors are to examine school meals after research by the Scottish Executive revealed 18.4 per cent - about one in five Scottish children - are clinically obese by the time they reach primary seven.
The fact that only 9.2 per cent are in this condition when starting school has strengthened campaigners’ claims that poor-quality school meals are damaging health.
Officials from HM Inspectorate of Education will examine school meals as part of a £63.5 million reform by the Executive, detailing criteria for schools to meet by the end of 2006.
Tony Blair yesterday praised chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign highlighting the often poor quality of school dinners and said the government would work on improving meals.
Mr Blair said government inspectors will include the quality of school meals in their regular checks and that funding provided by a new School Food Trust would help.
'IT'S
A WORRY WHEN EVERY MOUTHFUL YOUR CHILD TAKES COULD BE LETHAL'
DEBBIE Simson from Edinburgh experienced a "major fright" when she was told her son Connor, 11, had an nut allergy.
"Every mouthful your child takes could be a lethal one. With Easter coming up I need to watch out for what Connor is given. It is a constant worry, which you just have to learn to get used to.
"We had begun to suspect something was drastically wrong when he was two years old and came in with very sore eyes after helping his gran to put nuts on the bird-table.
"We took him to the doctor and, fortunately, our GP had been doing a thesis on nut allergies so was able to warn us of the severity of the condition."
During the wait for the allergy clinic appointment Connor went into anaphylactic shock after managing to break into a bag of peanuts for the birds which the family had sealed up.
"Connor was like an animal possessed and I just threw him into the back of the car to take him to a doctor. If I had not done this he would not be with us now." Debbie said she thought the appointment at the clinic was not too complex, but that some parents might feel overwhelmed.
