I remember my mother giving me mashed potato and pumpkin for lunch when I was in kindergarten and the other kids were eating sandwiches. I remember my teacher asked me if it was bubble and squeak. We would have half a glass of milk after lunch, and then have a nap. There was a kid at my kindergarten who used to have Ribena instead of milk. My mother told me I wouldn't eat sandwiches. Well, here's the rub. At 31, I was diagnosed with coeliac disease. I remember, when I was four, my mother would give me Ryvita Cruskits and I would have accidents. She stopped giving them to me. I suspect that my reticence to eat bread, besides sensory, was a warning sign that it made me feel discomfort.

I also have lactose intolerance and have to follow the low FODMAP Diet, and I also have a hiatus hernia.

Add to that. I have several autoimmune conditions, and I say that one of the greatest complications is that when I was 16, I would feel nauseous and at times vomit, and my mother thought I was anorexic. The truth is, I was caught between a rock and a hard place. My mother told me that at 16, I should have been able to say that I thought I needed to go to the doctor, but I would have needed a support worker or mentor to take me to the doctor, not her. Why? Well, there was one doctor there who I thought was okay, a female doctor, who my mother said wasn't there as much. What I needed was to be able to ring up and if the receptionist had said that she wouldn't be available for a couple of days, and I'd said, "Okay," had that respected. Not, "Oh, no," and forced me to see a doctor she knew I didn't like. The earliest reason as to why I didn't like this doctor was that he had an abrupt manner which left me upset. Also, when he did a physical exam of my stomach once, he hurt me, but what I couldn't articulate at the time was that I didn't have a pain in the stomach but the way he was conducting the exam hurt (too much pressure, squeezing with his whole hand, not using just his fingertips). A mentor or support worker would not have forced me to see a doctor I didn't like.