I tell my kids that this is the meal I’ve prepared, and if they don’t eat a decent amount of what I’ve given them, there will not be anything else to eat until the next meal. (I always put a little extra on the plate so if, for example, they’re not feeling rice that night they can eat more green beans and chicken and just a bite of the rice instead. Plus they’re 5 and under, so spilling is still a thing.) If my kids finish their dinner and still want a snack, they can have apples or yogurt. But we’re not going to skip dinner just to fill up on those, so they must have taken at least one bite of everything and eaten the majority of the food on the plate. If they don’t finish, I always leave their plate on the table or on the lowest shelf in the fridge, so if they decide they’re hungry, they can finish their meal and regain their snack privileges. My oldest is pretty darn stubborn, so she tried to see how far she could take things one night at dinner. Because she refused to eat dinner, she went until breakfast the next morning without eating. She whined and complained, but each time, I just told her that she could go eat her dinner that was still in the kitchen. She never gave in, and neither did I. But in the morning, she woofed down her breakfast. And that night, she ate her dinner without a fight. (By the way, most days she eats like a teenage boy despite being only 5. She’s still half a head taller than every other kid in her class and has boundless energy. The one missed meal clearly didn’t set her back too much. She has, however, learned to eat her dinner when I serve it, even if it isn’t her favorite food.)