The management of situated risk: A parental perspective on child food allergy

Abstract

Food allergy is an illness that requires constant risk management in everyday life. To date, there is no cure or preventive treatment, and the only way to manage the condition is therefore careful avoidance of the offending foodstuff and treatment of reactions when they occur. This article draws on a socio-cultural approach to explore parents' understandings and management of child food allergy in the context of everyday life, as 'situated' risk. A focus group study was carried out with 31 parents of children diagnosed with food allergy at two children's hospitals. The analysis of the focus group material reveals how the management of allergy risk seems to permeate most aspects of everyday life as well as how the parents draw on a dominant norm of risk avoidance as well as a counter-discourse of calculated risk taking. The patterns of risk management found in this study are discussed in terms of how risk avoidance and risk taking are intertwined and balanced in the context of moral parenthood.

‘Everybody has to think – do I have any peanuts and nuts in my lunch?’ School nurses, collective adherence, and children's food allergies

“…Thus, when children were in the care of schools, the ability of families to not adhere – what Stjerna et al . () refers to as ‘situated risk‐taking’ – was more limited.…”

“…, Stjerna et al . ). I propose that collective adherence is one such mechanism through which these social projects of risk management are enacted within institutional settings.…”

“…In a study of parents of children with food allergies, Stjerna et al . () found that parents managed the risks associated with food allergies through constant vigilance, which they characterised as fundamentally a ‘social project’ mediated through interaction and communication with others. Scholars have also been attentive to the metaphoric value of allergies as health conditions emblematic of the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries (Jackson , Mitman ).…”

Gauging Food Allergy Knowledge among Hospitality Students

“…More severe individual with food allergy may experience anaphylaxis reaction that may drop the blood pressure, loss of consciousness, blur visions and the worst is death (Gaspar-Marques et al, 2014). Food that healthy people, usually, consumed become dangerous to the food allergy sufferers (Stjerna, Vetander, Wickman, & Olin Lauritzen, 2014). Food that suggested by Malaysian Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescent (MOH, 2013) such as milk, soy (soy sauce and tempe, bean curd), banana, fish, oyster, squid, noodle, bread, tuna and sardine also can triggered food allergic (Boye, 2012).…”

“…The reactions proved to increased anxiety, demoralize, limited socialization and quality of life is decreased (Gaspar-Marques et al, 2014). Up to date, there is no cure for food allergy and the only way to prevent the reaction is to avoid expose and consumed food allergen (Stjerna et al, 2014& Burks et al, 2012. Western and European countries already implement allergen free school and environment for this susceptible populations , Wahl, Stephens, Ruffo, & Jones, 2014, Sicherer & Sampson, 2013.…”