Duration of a cow-milk exclusion diet worsens parents' perception of quality of life in children with food allergies.

BACKGROUND: In Italy, rigorous studies obtained with specific and validated questionnaires that explore the impact of exclusion diets on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children with food allergies are lacking. In this cross-sectional study, we wished to validate the Italian version of a disease-specific quality of life questionnaire, and assess the impact of exclusion diets on the HRQoL in a cohort of Italian children with IgE-mediated food allergies. METHODS: Children on an exclusion diet for ≥1 food were enrolled consecutively, and their parents completed the validated Italian version of the Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire-Parent Form (FAQLQ-PF) and Food Allergy Independent Measure (FAIM). RESULTS: Ninety-six parents of children aged 0-12 years answered the FAQLQ-PF. The validity of the construct of the questionnaire was assessed by correlation between the FAQLQ-PF and FAIM-PF (r = 0.85). The Italian version of the FAQLQ had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α >0.70). Factors that mainly influenced the HRQoL were older age, severity of food allergy, and the duration of the cow milk-exclusion diet. CONCLUSIONS: The FAQLQ-PF, validated in Italian, is a reliable instrument. Worse QoL scores were observed among older children, those with severe systemic reactions, and those with a prolonged cow milk-free diet. It is very important to consider the QoL assessment as an integral part of food-allergy management. These results emphasize the need to administer exclusion diets only for the necessary time and the importance of assessment of the HRQoL in these patients.

[The historic-cultural evolution of the children hospitalization]. / L'evoluzione storico-culturale dell'ospedalizzazione infantile.

The aim of describing an history of children-hospitalization is to underline the hard process in which the child has been recognized as an active and independent subject, a person with rights. In this long historic-cultural process, the important birth of Pediatrics at the end of the XIXth century testifies a change that implies the awareness of the subject's particular diversity of treatment and the new sensibility gained during the Enlightenment. This sensibility, close to the psychological needs of an hospitalized child, opened new possibilities of making the children-hospitalization more human, combining the physical and psychological sides.

[The precocious rehabilitation for the child that suffered at birth through the improvement of parental cure: new methods in preventing handicap from the 70's to nowadays]. / La riabilitazione precoce del bambino con problemi alla nascita mediante la valorizzazione delle cure parentali: nuove vie della prevenzione della disabilità dagli anni settanta ai nostri giorni.

Since the late 70's, the increase of knowledge about the prenatal period and the use of new methods for the study of the newborn have changed the previous image of the baby and his competences, deepening and confirming the idea of a newborn/infant capable of having an active role in his interaction with the world. The precocious cure, which has given the parents and the family contest an important part in rehabilitation, must not be limited to the baby himself, but must be extended to the whole contest in which he lives, grows up and learns. This new opportunity has made the family have a role of prime importance in preventing childhood handicap.