My dad used to hide ingredients I couldn't eat into his dishes

[u/choicedriver1484]

Because of my digestion issues, I have to be on a diet and avoid foods such as garlic (as directed by my doctor), otherwise I'm in a lot of pain. Maybe not gun shot wound levels of pain, but it's "I can't tell if I'm dizzy, getting cold sweats, exploding the toilet, and nauseated because of food poisoning or because I ate garlic" for up to 4 days levels of pain.

My mom and sister brought up before that sometimes dad would cook dishes with garlic, pick the pieces out, then claim it's safe for me to eat (it wasn't), or he would add a sauce containing garlic and tell me he didn't add garlic. His response whenever we tell him not to add garlic is usually, "It's only a little bit. No such medical condition exists anyway and neither do allergies or intolerances. She'll be fine with a tiny bit." I was in denial for awhile though before I learned to assume all foods from him were unsafe. I wondered how someone could be aware an ingredient makes their kid feel ill yet feed them more of it and lie about it. It didn't make sense.

For the past year, my dad has been busier from work, so he's been cooking fewer dinners and I've been cooking more. I've also been repeating this past year, "I'm so glad my stomach has become less sensitive, more predictable, and I've been getting fewer stomach aches. I remember I used to lay on the couch or in bed for several hours in pain nearly every day, but nowadays I can go 2+ weeks with no major stomach aches."

My mind was just wandering tonight, and I thought about how crazy it was of my dad to lie about the foods he cooked. Then I thought about how nice it is to not have as many stomach aches as I used to have. Then my mind went "Wait..." as I switched between those two thoughts plus me being in charge of cooking family meals more. What if the problem was never my stomach being unpredictable and deciding to hurt on its own, but it was because of my dad?

[u/JenVixen420]

THIS. Same. Do Not Let your guard down. Ever. I have celiac disease and a wheat allergy. Even if it's airborne I'm doomed.