first time using a nanny for our 1yr old -- duties for our nanny?

[LadyLotty]

It's our first time using a nanny and we have her 35 hrs a week split across 5 days a week. Can we expect her to cook fresh food every day for our little one? At the moment she cooks 4 days worth of food so cooks twice a week roughly and freezes them. It's all veg and meat in a large pot and not separated, mashed up and stored in the freezer I'm thinking my DL perhaps should be eating none mashed up, mixed up food now and moving onto individual tasting veg and meat? But I'm not sure what is reasonable to ask, and what other nanniestypically would do?!

Help!!

Yes entirely reasonable.

I've always cooked foods individually and only done purees and mashes when specifically asked as I'm a BLW fan! You can mix foods cooked separately but you can't unmix things cooked together. Tell your nanny you want fresh food every day, maybe help her work out a sample menu of things you want your DC to have and make sure you have a range if fresh ingredients. Ask nanny to keep a food diary as well (useful if you want to check for any reactions to new food).

It doesn't take long to do some pasta, cheese and veg sticks or some potatoes, a chicken breast and a few bits steamed broc/carrot.

Sounds like your DC have quite a limited diet if nanny is cooking a big pot of stuff for 4 days and giving the same thing each day.

As it is summer, finger foods I would expect are more practical, especially on outings. Mashed things may be useful for one meal a day but not every meal.
How old is your child, are you talking 12 months, 18 months, older?

Little one is just turned one. I'm just a bit concerned since we took him on holiday recently and noticed that actually, he really enjoys chewing his food and likes what adults eat, rather than puree. But I suppose the purée/mash of everything together is easier to feed from nanny's point of view, as well as mass cooking and storage, right?

...sorry forgot to add -- what also primped me to query was that I usually have my kitchen spotless, but after using my nanny, my oven (which doubles as a microwave) became really grubby. That's when I realised she defrosts the babyfood there - without lid. But should I be expecting her to clean that? (sigh) or is that outside the remit of nanny duties?

In some cases sod what is easier for nanny - it's what is best for your child that matters. It's no more complicated to cook and freeze large portions of lasagne, shepherds pie, chunky veg sauce etc than the boil it all together (ick), blitz and freeze. It sounds like you DS is really enjoying food and that's definitely something to encourage!

And nanny should definitely be cleaning up after herself. Takes a half a minute to wipe down an oven/microwave.

It looks like your nanny is following the "easy life" philosophy. Ask her to prep fresh food, she doesn't even have to do it every day, things like baked chicken breast or cod fillet can be used two days in a row, roast mixed veg chunks too. Steamed veg is much nicer done freshly. My charge is 11 months and I try to do veg and fruit freshly as I need it, and have meat/fish cooked ready to use throughout the week. I also cook a big lasagne or fish pie etc for the adults to have and then feed my charge leftovers the next day. Your nanny should know that at a year a baby can pretty much eat adult meals with no added salt, and also how important it is to encourage variety in her diet. A mashed stew is fine at 6/7/8 months but now your baby is ready for much more fun mealtimes

Thanks frakkit and wrinklyraisin... Hmm my nanny doesn't sound great huh! It is really difficult finding someone competent and not prone to cutting corners...

yes your nanny can/should cook fresh meals daily but as only have one child who prob doesnt eat huge portions sometimes it doesnt seem worth cooking fresh for a small amount

so

much better to batch cook and have in freezer supplys of fish pie/cauliflower cheese/sheherds pie/sausage casserole/chicken hotpot/lasagne etc and take out one of those for tea

maybe cook fresh for lunch/sandwich/pasta and veggies and nanny eat the same

For one child alot of the meal might get wasted if the nanny cooks it fresh.When I first started with my current family there was only one 8mth old and I used to quite often cook a shephards pie etc and have a portion for me and the baby and then leave the rest for my employers to eat.I still do this occassionaly even though now i have 3 kids.That was never requested of me(though they were v thankful to not have to cook after work!) so not sure you could ask her to do it.I just figured since I was cooking the food anyway why not leave some for them.
If she wants to freeze then i'd just freeze the 'main' part.i.e the fish pie/shephards pie/bolognaise sauce.and the cook the pasta/veg etc fresh to go alongside the meal pulled out of freezer.
I would expect a 1yr old to start eatting 'table food' i.e just like you and I eat but cut up

Just chat to her and if things don't improve simply make a meal planner yourself and ask her to follow it. I have a months worth usually, which I supply for grocery purposes (am the nanny) - and then at the beginning of a new month I may reuse some weeks or begin from scratch.

As for cleaning, I've always thought the general rule of thumb should be to return the house to the state you found it in. If it's a pig stye, I am not going to clean everything only my own mess but - but in my case, because my bosses home is spotless, that is the way I leave it for them.

When I was cooking for one 1 year old I batch cooked and froze - wasn't much point in cooking one tiny portion every day. It wasn't mashed up though, just things like fish pie, stews, cottage pie, bolognese/pasta sauce, soups.