When children with dietary restrictions are bullied

Abstract

Three hundred fifty-three questionnaires were filled out. Parents filled out the majority of the questionnaires for their children who had food allergies as the majority of those people were youngsters. Of those who suffered from food allergies, 25.9% were under the age of 4, 55.0% were between the ages of 4 and 11, 12.5% were between the ages of 12 and 18, 2.6% were between the ages of 19 and 25, and 4.0% were older than 25. Within all age categories, a quarter of the participants said that someone with a food allergy has experienced bullying, teasing, or harassment due to their condition. Nearly nine in ten victims of bullying, teasing, or harassment said they had more than one incident. The majority of the incidents (80%) took place at school, and the majority of the inci-dents (82%). Twenty-one percent of bullied, mocked, or harassed students said that school person-nel were to blame. As a whole, 79% of the bullied, mocked, or harassed people said that their food allergies were the only reason. For 57% of bullied individuals, the triggering incident was a physical one, such as being handled, flung, or waved an allergy, and for others, it was the deliberate poison-ing of their meal.