title: Mealtime behavior among parents and their young children with food allergy.
abstract: Food allergies are increasingly prevalent in the pediatric population. Balancing allergen avoidance with the promotion of healthy eating behaviors can be challenging for families.
  
  
  
  To characterize mealtime behaviors among parents of young children with food allergy.
  
  
  
  Seventy-four parents of young children with food allergies (≤7 years of age) completed measures of mealtime behavior, perceptions of food allergy risk and severity, pediatric parenting stress, and food allergy-related quality of life. Mealtime behavior reports were compared with published data regarding typically developing children, young children with type 1 diabetes, and children with diagnosed feeding disorders (with or without related medical factors).
  
  
  
  Parents of young children with food allergies reported frequent mealtime concerns. Specifically, they reported significantly more mealtime behavioral concerns than typically developing peers, comparable mealtime behavioral concerns to young children with type 1 diabetes, and significantly fewer mealtime behavioral concerns than children with diagnosed feeding disorders. Parental mealtime concerns were positively correlated with other parent perceptions of food allergy, such as risk of allergen exposure, illness-related parenting stress, and food allergy-related quality of life.
  
  
  
  Young children with food allergy and their parents are more likely to exhibit mealtime behavioral concerns than typically developing peers and their parents. Future research should investigate the effect of food allergies and maladaptive mealtime behaviors on children's nutrition to provide clinical guidelines for parents who may benefit from psychosocial and/or nutritional support.
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy and Immunology, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC; The George Washington University, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC. Electronic address: lherbert@childrensnational.org.
authors.forename: Linda Jones
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Herbert
authors.affiliation: The George Washington University, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy and Immunology, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC; The George Washington University, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Hemant
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sharma
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D005190:Family; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010465:Perception; D011788:Quality of Life; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens