As a parent of a child with life threatening food allergies, I live in a world filled with fear, severe anxiety, worry and stress.
A new study 'Parental Anxiety and Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms in Pediatric Food Allergy' was published earlier this month in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, highlighting the fact that more than 80% of parents experience 'significant worry' about their child's food allergies. It goes on to show that 42% met the clinical cut off for Post-traumatic stress symptoms and 39% have moderate to extremely severe anxiety.
As we know the most common food allergies in children are cows milk, eggs and peanuts, having one of these allergies is hard enough, however my daughter lives with multiple food allergies which sometimes prove very difficult to avoid.
Allergies also link with eczema and asthma which opens up a whole other world of anxiety.
I can only speak for myself when I say that my worries are not limited to the food allergies, or other allergies and conditions Jasmine has, but also anxious and worried about her mental wellbeing, being only 7 years old she has to be so vigilant and aware of her surroundings that she can't just be carefree child enjoying her childhood. This worries me as she is old beyond her years in terms of overthinking her future, worrying about scenarios that might happen when she is a teenager, how she will fit into society and even how she would cope in a work place. These are things you would never expect a child to think about at 7.
I've been to the supermarket this morning in preparation for schools breaking up this week, its taken 3 hours and only 2 different supermarkets today to get what we need for the week and read, check and double check food labels. Its normally on the supermarket days where I feel more exhausted. Today I am tired; tired of labels, tired of explaining allergies, tired of not being able to get the things we need, tired of having to pre plan, tired of people not getting it, tired of not being able to give my child everything safely and tired of not being able to make these allergies go away.
If like me you feel this way, don't be ashamed, don't feel guilty, you feel this way because you are doing an amazing job at keeping your child safe, we are allowed to feel like this because let's be honest we are always switched on. We are in this together, lets continue to share our stories and continue to support each other!!
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