A new study from Children’s National shows kids with food allergies are facing bullying by students and adults at school.
“Many times, we find that food allergy is really mistaken for personal dietary preference and folks don’t really know that this is something that can really cause harm,” said Dr. Linda Herbert, director of the Psychosocial Clinical and Research Program.
Dr. Herbert and other researchers' work was published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology this week. Food Allergy-Related Bullying Among Children and Adolescents shows how food allergies impact kids’ daily lives.
Around 31 percent of children in the study, ages 9 to 15, said they’ve been bullied because of it.
“We weren’t surprised at the rate of bullying, but what we were surprised to see what that difference between what kids were saying and what parents were saying really was,” Dr. Herbert told 7News Health Reporter Victoria Sanchez.
Less than half of those parents knew about the teasing, exclusion from activities, and allergens being thrown at their children or intentionally put in their food.
“And the other thing we were surprised to see is that not only were kids being bullied by classmates and other kids, but sometimes they were saying they were being bullied by other adults as well,” she said.
The three-year study concluded in 2020 but the pandemic is having an additional impact on students with food allergies.
“Some families are telling us they’re stressed because they’re having to remind themselves of all the things, they used to for food allergy management that they hadn’t had to do during the pandemic because they were able to be at home in a very controlled environment,” she explained.
There are steps schools can take to ease some of the burden. Dr. Herbert suggests swapping out food rewards with activities. Instead of a pizza party, add an extra recess.
“One of our concerns is that if kids are getting teased about their food allergy, they might be less likely to tell others they have a food allergy and in an event of an emergency, others might not know how to help them,” she said.