Food allergy: a proposed new tool for educating children and young people and supporting them to self-manage
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Food allergy: a proposed new tool for educating children and young people and supporting them to self-manage

Lisa Clarke Lead nurse for paediatric allergy, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham Children’s Hospital, Nottingham, England
Sian Caulton Senior youth worker, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham Children’s Hospital, Nottingham, England
Clare Alderson Youth worker, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham Children’s Hospital, Nottingham, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To acknowledge that prevention, and therefore patient education, are key in the management of food allergy

  • To source information for guiding your discussions on food allergy management with patients and families

  • To learn about a new tool designed to support children and young people to self-manage their food allergy

Self-managing food allergy in children and young people presents challenges for families as they attempt to find a balance between their child’s safety and freedom. Nurses have an important role in providing education that supports children, young people and their parents to self-manage food allergy safely but not at the expense of the child or young person’s social development. At Nottingham Children’s Hospital, the allergy service and youth service have developed an education and support tool composed of three domains, ‘awareness’, ‘checking’ and ‘emergency kit’, forming the acronym ACE. The authors suggest that the ACE tool could be used by healthcare professionals as a framework for educating children and young people with food allergy and their parents, as well as by children and young people and their parents at home to risk assess and risk manage everyday situations and new scenarios or events.

Nursing Children and Young People. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.2023.e1475

Peer review

This article has been subject to open peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

lisa.clarke@nuh.nhs.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Clarke L, Caulton S, Alderson C (2023) Food allergy: a proposed new tool for educating children and young people and supporting them to self-manage. Nursing Children and Young People. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.2023.e1475

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Debra Forster, children’s respiratory and community nurse, Nicola Rew, clinical lead paediatric allergy dietitian, and June Richards, paediatric dermatology clinical nurse specialist, all at Nottingham Children’s Hospital, for contributing to the initial plans for the youth independence event

Published online: 04 December 2023

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