You're just a better mom than me Tish . Rather than fight with them, well frankly it was mainly the oldest I went with the flow. I was so happy when he said he was "hungee"! After the doctor visit I was kind of an_al (imagine that) and I'd plan out ahead of time what I wanted him to eat for the day and put it in tuperware. When he was hungee I'd give him two choices, he'd pick at eat his few mouthfuls and be on his way, a couple hours later we'd repeat the process. Long before the 5 small meals a day became the rage.

And when you really look at portion sizes its amazing. Peanut butter for example my son would eat. It's an awesome food, portion size is like 2T. Now on a piece of bread it might be difficult to get them to eat it all, but on a cracker or piece of celery much more manageable and he'll eat two servings.

Your liquid theory has merit. I didn't have to worry the liquid thing, I had to fight to get him to drink after the formula. The milk there was the powdered stuff and he was allergic to apple juice.