An Investigation of Food Choice Behaviour of Food Allergic and Non-Food Allergic Children

Background: Children’s food choice behaviour is influenced by a number of family and social factors. About 20%-30% of the population modifies their diet for a suspected adverse reaction to food. Since avoidance is the mainstay of managing food allergy, it can be assumed to significantly affect food choices. It is therefore important to understand if and to what extent food allergy influences the way parents and children make their food choice decisions.

Methods: The research project has utilised an innovative observational approach in the form of a board game to investigate parental-child communication and food choice behaviour. Parents/guardians and children were given a problem-solving task related to food choice behaviour. Each session lasted up to 15 minutes and was conducted with five food allergic and seven non-allergic children (aged 4-8 years) and their parents/guardians. The sessions were videotaped and analysed by constructing a four-category scheme, which classifies parental utterances along two dimensions, food choice behavioural control and food choice recognition. Observational categories were compared between the two groups.

Results: Preliminary findings indicate considerable variability in how parents/guardians and children with and without food allergy communicate when making food choice decisions. In general, children with food allergies seem to be more cautious and appear to have less responsibility when choosing their foods than healthy children of the same age.

Conclusions: Given the preliminary findings, this study will illuminate how food allergy affects the way parents/guardians and children make their food choice decisions.