This paper describes an online self-help intervention for parents of children with food allergy. Given the great unmet need for psychological support for parents, this type of intervention is much needed. The paper is very well-written. The introduction clearly sets out the need for an intervention such as this, with reference to relevant literature. The second to last sentence is very long and could do with breaking down a little.

The methods are very clear but it would be useful to have more information on the intervention itself, perhaps in a supplementary file so that the reader can get a feel for what the intervention looked like and what parents were expected to engage with. Was it mostly information sheets to read and videos to watch or was there anything interactive within the intervention itself? In the design section there is an indication that the intervention lasted 4 weeks but, how often were parents expected to engage with the online material? Could they access it anytime they liked and could they access it on their phone or did they need to use a laptop or desktop computer? Were they sent prompts to engage with it or just left with it once randomised?

The data is handled very well with useful tables. I would find it helpful to see the mean/median scores for the FASE-P and the IUS too.

The hits to the website are very low. Were parents who never visited or visited less than once a month removed from the analysis? It is a shame that scores did not significantly change, but it is probably due to this lack of engagement, as noted in the discussion.

The discussion considers the data very well, but I think the conclusion is not entirely warranted. The issues with attrition rates and lack of engagement with the website probably contributed to the lack of significant results, rather than the intervention itself (as an online self-help intervention) being inappropriate. It may well be the case that such an intervention needs to be a little more tailored so that it meets the needs of parents with a newly diagnosed young child through to the needs to a parent whose child is about to leave home for University. So I would recommend being more cautious in the conclusions and not completely write off the possibility of an online self-help intervention being helpful. Certainly more research is needed.

I would like to congratulate the authors on the significant effort required to put together such an intervention and for submitting the results even though they were not significant. This provides important information for researchers going forward in this area.

The authors have responded to all of my comments. I have no further comments to add.