Just on the subject of variety...... I know that all children are different but mine actually seem to thrive on monotony. I suspect that variety is more important to adult than children. Every day for 2 years I have asked DS2 what he wants on his sandwich and every day without fail he says hommus. Once he astonished me by asking for philly cheese and honey but then 2 minutes later he said that he'd changed his mind and he wanted hommus. About once a week he asks if he can have peanut butter even though he knows the answer is no. DS1 mixes it up by which I mean that he usually asks for the same thing for 3 weeks and then he changes to something new and asks for that for 3 weeks. I try for a bit of variety in the snack department but I'm pretty sure that they would be ok if they got the dame snacks and fruit every day.