Almost any parent will get frustrated at a sertain moment because his kiddo doesnt want to eat, or doesnt eat what the parent wants him to.

it is very important to understand the normal development of eating.
Starting from birth, a baby has a preference for everything that tastes like mothermilk, sweet and fat. A lot of dishes, like surtain vegetables, kids only learn to aprisiate when they get older and theyr taste organs mature.

When children make the change from milk to food, mostly between the first and second birthday, they often become more picky.
Actually, this is a build-in mechanism that nature build in to us. it is called NEOFOBIA. This means, fear of new food. This is perfectly normal, every child goes throuth that. It develops together with separationanxiety and has to protect children that are more mobile, but dont know what is edible yet, from eating poison or things that arent fit for consumption.

this is what you can do if your kid is in the stage of neofobia:

Show your child that you yourself like the food. If you dont like it, be sure that a child will not eat it
Often a child learns to appriciate new food when he tasted it for 10 times, this is scientificly proven in case of neofobia. Smelling or seeing the food doesnt help, but, on the other hand, one bite is already enough.
You can for example make your kid for two weeks something that he allready likes, and let him taste every evening of that one thing that you want him to learn how to eat (one thing at a time) and praise the hell out of him for that prestation :D
How tempting it is, bribing kids has an opposite effect. If you promice your child a dessert if he eats his vegetables, then the result will be that he WILL eat those carrots, but will never like them... follow the logic: "those carrots must be gross, my mom even gets me a treat if i eat them, she knows..."
Dont forget that for some things a child has to mature to like, and that kids also have their preferences.

Also after the age when neofobia occurs there can be problems in the eating area. Most problems can be succesfully solved with a psychologist, like pica, swallowphobia and so on. The therapy consists usually of eatinghabits, working on relationships between parents and children, support for the parents,...
Dont forget that some of this disorders can have a medical origin.

At last, some other points to keep in mind when your child isnt an enthousiastic eater:

It is preferable to announce the dinner on time so that your child is mentally prepared. That way your child isnt torn away from his game, and will not sit on the table with a long face just because of that.
It helps to make a ritual out of eating together. Once you sit at the table, it is time to eat, and not to watch tv or play with power rangers. The less distractors, the better
When a child comes to an age where it wants to make his own disicions, and sais "no" to every thing on his plate... well, why not give him that choice?
Ask your child for example if he wants boiled potatoes or mushed potatoes ... he still has his potatoes, and he has a choice.
Its triky here though, if you give him a choice between A and B, dont say yes to option C, there is no option C!
DO NOT FORSE YOUR CHILD TO EMPTY HIS PLATE! I cant repeat it enough.. When you force your child to empty his plate, you will make an unpleasant atmosphere for one, but even more important, you will learn your child to focus on extern things (empty plate) to determine his satisfaction and not on intern ques (having enough)

Most often it is good to go by the following rule : You decide what and when your kid eats, and your kid decides how much it eats

I hope i was of help.

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