I wrote a while back about meeting a man who’s children attended a school in Pennsylvania where they had a separate classroom for the food allergic children. Yes, I said a separate classroom for food allergic children. He said the reasoning was to act as a way to prevent the children from being made fun of by removing them from exposure to the other kids, and thus reducing the need for having food restrictions across all children (think a blanket policy for no peanuts, for example). While this seems completely counter-productive to me, I suppose I can see the logic, however, I sincerely doubt that whoever came up with that idea has a food allergic child. Surely they didn’t think in terms of what the long term effects of alienating their child would be? In fact, I can’t think of a better way to ensure a child is made fun of than to alienate them from the general population and impose a label upon them. But hey, I’m just a mom with a food sensitive kid; what do I know?
Well, now we can make sure our voices are heard. If you would like your voice to be heard on the topic of social management of food intolerances and allergies, please see below.
Researchers from Capella Universities’ Harold Abel School of Social and Behavioral Sciences are conducting a survey to increase the understanding of how severe food allergies affect families’ quality of life. Topics covered in the survey include bullying, schools, fear, social management, financial impact, and support groups.
This survey is intended to be taken by an adult over the age of 18, answering on behalf of their child with food allergy. The survey should take about 20 minutes to complete. To participate, click on the survey button or copy and paste this link into your browser: https://www.surveymonkey.com/
