Michelle Ceresney
Mom of three · Lived-experience IBD consultant · Toronto
I was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease years before I became a mother, and I went through multiple surgeries learning what my own body could and couldn't handle. I thought that was the hard part.
Then my son was diagnosed at 16 months old. Sixteen months. Barely walking, barely eating, and already inside the same disease I had spent years fighting. What followed were long stretches in and out of SickKids in Toronto — appointments, scopes, infusions, waiting rooms, and the particular exhaustion of advocating for a child who cannot yet describe where it hurts.
The medical care was excellent. But nobody was there at 6pm on a Tuesday when he refused dinner for the fourth night, or in the school office explaining why he needed unrestricted bathroom access, or standing in a party kitchen deciding whether one slice of cake was worth it. We had to build that part ourselves, slowly, meal by meal, over years.
We changed how our family eats. We changed our routine, our sleep, our travel, our expectations. Not into something joyless and clinical — into something that works, that my kids actually enjoy, and that gives his gut the best chance we can give it.
Why I do this
Because the loneliest moment in this disease isn't the hospital — it's the kitchen. It's the invitation on the fridge. It's the lunchbox that comes home untouched again.
I've sat in both chairs: the patient's and the parent's. I know what the pamphlets leave out, what questions to ask a GI team, and how to make change at home without turning your child's whole life into a medical event. When I work with a family, I'm not delivering theory. I'm handing over what a decade of living it taught us.
An honest boundary
I am not a physician, nurse or registered dietitian. I am a lived-experience consultant. Everything I offer is designed to complement your child's medical treatment — never to replace it, delay it or contradict it. If something I suggest conflicts with your care team's guidance, follow your care team.