Study on Emotional Impact of Food Allergy

Over the summer I participated in this joint survey offered by Galaxy Foods and FAAN. The results have been published and I have a few comments:

• I'm thrilled to see that more than 50% of the parents surveyed believe their child's teachers and administrators have an excellent or good understanding of their child's allergies. We've come a long way, baby!
• I'm concerned to see that 50% of parents feel frustrated in dealing with their child's food allergy. Surprisingly, 31% report feeling isolated and alone. I know I felt this way 10 years ago, but I hoped that with so many blogs, websites and support groups, frustration and isolation would be low. We obviously still have a long way to go.
• 69% of parents believe that their food allergic child's life has been somewhat or significantly impacted by their food allergy. I certainly see an impact in meeting nutritional needs and in limitations for social opportunities.
• The limited social opportunity is further shown by the result stating 71% have never eaten in a restaurant due to food allergy concerns. Again, the awareness and information out there is so much better. Sites like AllergyEats help families make safer decisions. That said, I do get this one. Many feel that it's just not worth the risk.

Did anything jump out at you when you looked through the results? The bottom line for me is that I feel like we're moving ahead with food allergy information, but for those of us in the thick of it, it can't be fast enough.