What Happened to PB&J?

Remember the good old days when kids just ate simple things like peanut butter and jam sandwiches? Sigh.

     We are in the midst of the picky-eating toddler antics right now, but part of me is not convinced that it is merely due to pickiness. Rachel has always been my great eater, but for the past several months she has been seemingly inexplicably fussy. At first I thought it was just due to teething, and it may have been that, in part. But more and more I am wondering if the foods she eats are playing a role in her seeming personality change. She was such an easygoing baby, but since she turned a year she has been much less easy going. We already know she cannot tolerate milk (but other dairy products seem less bothersome) and if she eats processed tomato products (spaghetti sauce, etc) she wakes up and screams for hours on end during the night. I mentioned my concerns at Rachel's 18 month check up this week, but our doctor just said to not give her things that seem to upset her and the rest is probably just her being picky. Not being completely satisfied with that, I followed up with our naturopath today. She said they don't usually test for food allergies/ intolerances in children younger than two, but set us up with an elimination diet to see if Rachel felt any better.
So, for the next three weeks, Rachel will not be having dairy products of any kind, gluten, corn, eggs, or any of the nightshades: tomato, potato, eggplant, or peppers. Doesn't leave us with a whole lot.

Tonight I made homemade granola bars and also chia pudding. Hoping she enjoys them when she tries them in the morning. :)

Picky toddler Laura got a whole host of creative concoctions, as well, but with much less stipulations. The only stipulation with her was: more calories! I found this list of things I used to make for Laura saved, and thought it was interesting how it compared. :)

• smoked corn & roasted sweet potato puree
• sweet beet pancakes with honey cream cheese
• homemade granola with organic yogurt
• barbecued chicken pureed with cream cheese and salsa
• creamy garlic seafood puree
• cedar-roasted salmon pureed with cream cheese
• avocado & mango pureed with lime 
• roasted peach & butternut squash pureed with cinnamon
• steamed salmon & asparagus pureed with hollandaise sauce
• mashed potato & squash with coconut milk
• watermelon sorbet

     Rachel could probably only eat about two or three of the things off this list.

I'm hoping we get some answers from this elimination diet, and I hope that Rachel really isn't in chronic pain from the current foods she eats. It's so hard to tell when she doesn't have the language to tell us what's going on. :/