Exploring Unmet Needs Related to Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy Among Pregnant Women and Mothers of Infants and Young Children: A Qualitative Study
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants and Recruitment
2.2. Data Collection
2.3. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Participant Characteristics
3.2. Maternal Experiences Surrounding CMPA
3.2.1. Perceived Negative Psychosocial Impacts
3.2.2. Perceived Inadequacy of Support from Healthcare Professionals
3.2.3. Perceived Negative Dietary and Financial Implications
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
| CMPA | Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy |
| GP | General Practitioner |
| IgE | Immunoglobulin E |
References
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| Characteristic | Group 1 (n = 6) | Group 2 (n = 6) | Group 3 (n = 4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age of mother, mean (SD), years | 33.7 (1.6) | 32.2 (3.2) | 32.5 (4.5) |
| Female, n (%) | 6 (100.0) | 6 (100.0) | 4 (100.0) |
| Married, n (%) | 5 (83.3) | 4 (66.7) | 3 (75.0) |
| European ancestry, n (%) | 6 (100.0) | 5 (83.3) | 3 (75.0) |
| University education, n (%) | 5 (83.3) | 5 (83.3) | 3 (75.0) |
| Full-time employment, n (%) | 5 (83.3) | 0 | 2 (50.0) |
| Child age at CMPA diagnosis, mean (SD), months | 5.7 (2.2) | 2.9 (1.8) | NA |
| Child age at time of study, mean (SD), months | 29.2 (11.3) | 9.7 (4.7) | NA |
| Weeks pregnant, mean (SD) | NA | NA | 24.6 (9.8) |
| Theme | Supporting Quotations |
|---|---|
| Perceived Negative Psychosocial Impacts | “Coming from me to him felt like a whole other complicated issue, because I’m supposed to be the one feeding him food that is safe for him, especially when it comes directly from my body.” (P1, Group 1) “Social things that used to feel fun, don’t feel fun because there’s so much work. Or scary that something might happen.” (P9, Group 2) |
| Perceived Inadequacy of Support from Healthcare Professionals | “I had a GP who basically I just went to and would tell him what I wanted because they would not give me much. Like had no idea, wouldn’t even ask me any questions when I was there was like, yeah, we’re fine here bye like, here’s her shots, time to go. So not really feeling like there was any, any support there.” (P4, Group 1) “I’m pretty, like, health literate and able to, like, peruse through this information carefully. But even then, I found myself like, just going into like, anxiety spirals by the reading things on the Internet. I think like especially on social media, like you can get like information overload, and it can kind of like make you think about the worst case scenario it can like just, yeah, it can be very toxic at the same time.” (P6, Group 1) “I have been reading a lot of books on like becoming a parent and stuff like that. Like, I have three books that I’m reading kind of simultaneously, and none of them really touch on this at all. So to be honest, it’s not even something that I like was super aware of or like put a lot of thought into because I feel like it’s not touched on in a lot of current, like parenting resources.” (P13, Group 3) |
| Perceived Negative Dietary and Financial Implications | “A place where I felt under-resourced was my own diet. When I was breastfeeding, having to be off dairy and soy, I found it really hard to get enough to eat. And because [my baby] was so little, like, life was just really chaotic, and it was hard to, to cook meals. And, yeah, I was just fatigued and kind of felt unwell a lot.” (P11, Group 2) “Our bills definitely have gone higher for groceries.” (P10, Group 2) |
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Harbottle, Z.; Morton, B.; Hunt, B.; Protudjer, J.L.P.; Reynolds, K.A. Exploring Unmet Needs Related to Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy Among Pregnant Women and Mothers of Infants and Young Children: A Qualitative Study. Nutrients 2026, 18, 2178. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18132178
Harbottle Z, Morton B, Hunt B, Protudjer JLP, Reynolds KA. Exploring Unmet Needs Related to Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy Among Pregnant Women and Mothers of Infants and Young Children: A Qualitative Study. Nutrients. 2026; 18(13):2178. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18132178
Chicago/Turabian StyleHarbottle, Zoe, Brenna Morton, Brianna Hunt, Jennifer L. P. Protudjer, and Kristin A. Reynolds. 2026. "Exploring Unmet Needs Related to Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy Among Pregnant Women and Mothers of Infants and Young Children: A Qualitative Study" Nutrients 18, no. 13: 2178. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18132178
APA StyleHarbottle, Z., Morton, B., Hunt, B., Protudjer, J. L. P., & Reynolds, K. A. (2026). Exploring Unmet Needs Related to Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy Among Pregnant Women and Mothers of Infants and Young Children: A Qualitative Study. Nutrients, 18(13), 2178. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18132178

