Food allergy and summer camp: a scoping review

Summer camp is a prime youth development space that serves a variety of participants from diverse backgrounds. Campers with disabilities are often served by medical specialty camps that are better equipped to handle their unique medical needs. Campers with severe food allergies, however, are typically served by traditional camps, and there is a gap in understanding how to best serve these campers safely in the traditional camp context. With this gap in mind, the purpose of this scoping review is to synthesize multidisciplinary literature regarding food allergies in summer camps. The review includes: (1) research on children with food allergies in summer camp and (2) research on food allergy management at summer camp. This scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley's process for conducting scoping reviews, the Joanna Briggs Institute's guidelines, and the PRISMA-ScR recommendations. Three primary themes emerged: (1) documenting rates of food allergy and anaphylaxis, (2) managing food allergies and anaphylaxis and (3) training staff on food allergies and anaphylaxis. This study suggests that a small body of literature exists on food allergies and summer camp, calling for additional research on a variety of topics related to serving children with food allergies at summer camp.