What I meant about not running a diner was that I won't cook something up just for him. If we're having spaghetti and he wants pancakes, that's not happening. I think there's a big difference between making something new just for him and just heating up some leftovers for him. I want the leftovers to get eaten anyway, so it's not a big deal to toss leftovers in a bowl and nuke it for a minute for him.

As the previous poster said, I do try to make sure that there's something that he'll eat in whatever I'm making for dinner. It's not too hard because he loves pasta and rice, and most of my meals include pasta or rice.

I think what's also been helpful in this past week or so is to give him a few options to choose from, so he feels like he has a say in what he eats. For instance, when I made spaghetti and meatballs, I asked him if he wanted meatballs and sauce with his pasta or just plain pasta. He just wanted the pasta plain (and ate a whole bowl of it), but asked if he could have meatballs for lunch the next day.

Regarding dessert, he never gets dessert if he doesn't eat all of his dinner. We'll let him leave the table if he says he doesn't want to eat any more, but he gets no dessert.