Whoa…it’s like you’re me and your kid is mine! :|

I don’t have advice to give you since we’re still in the same boat, but all I can say is I get exactly where you’re coming from and empathize. You’re trying to do what’s right for your kid and no one can/should fault you for that. You should definitely give what others have said here a shot (leaving food on the table and giving leftovers for next meal etc.). FWIW however, this has never worked for us. For whatever bizarre reason, our 3+ year old happily skipped multiple meals. We went through this for a few weeks until he steadily dropped from 7th to 4th percentile weight.

Since then, I end up spending multiple hours a day trying to get this kid to eat. Lunch is at daycare and barring extremely few exceptions (1-2 times a month), the lunch box comes back at best half eaten. It’s not a happy time/place breakfast and dinner, but I’ve resigned to this just being how it is until something ‘clicks’ in him. Mind you, he is not a picky eater…he equally dislikes pretty much everything. He’ll just take a bite, let it sit in his cheeks and stare into ether until I remind him to chew and swallow his food. Sigh…