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[quote=Anonymous](1) We make sure its always there as an option and offer it in a light-hearted way, respecting him if he says no to avoid a battle of wills. (2) we cook in a lot of vegetables into tasty foods where they get "lost" (pasta sauces, meat and bean stews) and some inevitably ends up in his mouth. (3) we mush it into something he really wants, like bread. (4) sometimes we just have it on the table but don't offer it to him, and the "me too" tendency to demand what we're eating gets to him. (5) we don't expect him to try anything we wouldn't be willing to eat ourselves. (Occasionally he eats jarred veggie purees, which we would *not* be willing to eat ourselves; but we let him tell us when he wants them).

Its obviously a hassle to prepare to always have these foods on hand that will only be eaten some of the time (by him anyway), and find creative ways to get him to eat them. *Of course* it would be easier to just give him something he is always is willing to eat, in which case he'd live off bread and cheese. But in the long term we don't think it would be good for him  - eating a limited and unvaried diet -- *or* us -- who would always have to feed him something special. In fact, feeding him the sort of variety that we eat was explicit Dr.'s orders - mostly for our own future sanity.  (In my previous post I wasn't suggesting a link between a lack of variety and diabetes. But in fact, there probably is one. Dietary advice changes just about daily; and since we don't know much, common sense (and evidence) suggests that variety is a good health bet. And obviously, whatever it is that the majority of American adults are doing isn't working out very well for them).

Obviously, we have busier days where we cut corners, and easier days where we go all out. But (a) the nanny is a well paid, professional child care provider with 5+ years of prior experience, who explicitly advertised healthy meal prepared during her interview, and (b) her day has a lot of actual (not hypothetical) down time to do cooking, meal planning, or other tasks; even allowing for a solid hour long break for personal time. Our son naps for a 2.5 hour block every day, and at present about 2 hours of it is spent on personal time. So yes, seeing him eat the same meatballs even day for a month is irritating.

I have learned a lot in this thread. (1) We need to step up as employers and manage the situation in a supportive and nonjudgemental way, and provide both more guidance and active help than we would have liked. It wouldn't be the first time -- table manners, schedule and nap management, and safety issues have all required our active intervention in the past. Our nanny really excels at the interpersonal relationship with our son and the development of his verbal skills, but has been less than impressive in other domains. (2) Most nanny are doing somewhat more variety than ours but nothing elaborate, often rely on leftovers provided by the parents, and this is altogether reasonable for lunch time. (3) A small subset of nannies do not take this aspect of their job particularly seriously, and resent the implication that they should do better.

There is probably a fourth, but it something we have already tried and our nanny will probably never accept -- that its OK if he rebels during the *occasional* meal and doesn't eat much until the next one, and you do not need to keep rifling through the fridge and pantry for some crap that he is finally willing to shove in his mouth. As a matter of fact, our dinners are quite a bit more pleasant when he shows up actually hungry! 
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