None of the tricks that anyone has ever mentioned to me worked on my kids. Even the “tricks” I used to get kids in my daycare class to eat never worked at home. :( Dipping sauces, acting like the food is super yummy, saying it’s a grown-up food, disguising veggies, giving the food cute names (like “bean balls” instead of “peas”), letting them help cook…none of it. I remember trying to convince my daughter, as a toddler, to try some broccoli. I told her, “It’s little trees! Daddy loves it, Mommy loves it, and Aunt Katy loves it!” Aunt Katy was her favorite person. My daughter gave me a calm look and said, “Well, I don’t like it.”
Luckily for us, only one of our kids is really picky, and he is gradually getting better. For a long time, as a very young toddler, he would only eat bread and cheese. Now he will also eat chicken, pasta with red sauce, scrambled eggs, and several kinds of fruit. He will not eat veggies at all. He will try them, and seems genuinely to not like them. He gags and almost pukes. He also gags easily when brushing his teeth, and if he sees another person spit he will start gagging. It makes me wonder if something about the texture and taste of other meats and vegetables triggers that same response. Anyway, my husband and I don’t make meals an issue. I cook things I know all of us like, except my youngest. I’ll throw together something simple for him. We never force the kids to eat everything on their plates or eat things we know they don’t like. However, once a meal is over, it’s over. There are no “snacks” ten minutes after lunch or dinner.
As a side note, I think parents should be careful with coercing kids into eating. As long as the child is getting a healthy, balanced diet over the course of a few days (instead of focusing on each meal), I wouldn’t be concerned. Each parent has to pick their own battles, but battles over food just seem to have more potential to have long-term effects. When my kids say they’re full, I excuse them from the table even if they seem to have barely touched their food. I just remind them not to ask me for anything else until the next mealtime. They rarely do, and seem to do a good job of regulating their own food intake.