Mealtime Power Struggle

Anyone who knows anything about Luis and my parenting style knows that my children WILL eat all of their food, anything they are given, whether they like it or not. Well, we are firm believers in that, but it has become quite a headache for me. Ever since Luis has been gone, (he was obviously the mealtime enforcer) Jackson has put up the biggest fight about meals... almost every dinner! Our original plan for handling this was "If you don't want to eat it, you will once you get hungry enough" and that is that! Well, Jackson is especially stubborn... extremely stubborn, unnaturally stubborn for a 3 year old. Jackson went 36 hours without eating... all by choice. The food was right in front of him at each mealtime and he refused to eat it. He just drank water all day. This is what happened. On Sunday night Silvia made apricot chicken which was SO good! Jackson refused to eat. So, it became his breakfast, he refused to eat. No snacks, no drink but water, wouldn't eat it at lunch or dinner and wouldn't eat it right before bed! I kept telling him how he's going to have big owies in his tummy if he doesn't eat it, but he didn't care. He was so grumpy from hunger all day. Well at 3am he came in my room and we were up for the next 2 hours or so. He was in bed with me so he wouldn't keep Jake awake. He was crying from a headache, so I gave him Tylenol and then he started gagging like he was going to throw up over and over. My son would rather endure a hunger headache and nausea than eat his food! RIDICULOUS!!! So I couldn't let him gag like that so I got him a banana and wheat thins and he fell asleep finally. BUT, the apricot chicken was his breakfast again the next morning (The very same plate of food, we don't keep adding it on or anything) and he refused again. So, I force fed him the food. Not fun. So enough of the "You'll eat it when you are hungry enough" technique, because Jackson won't! I would end up taking to the hospital for starvation! So, new technique, force feed him until he realizes it's better to do it by himself! That is what happened tonight. He didn't want to eat his burrito so I force fed him, and trust me it takes FORCE! I am convinced my son is The Hulk. I had my arms around him with both hands with a death grip on the opposite forearm and he still almost got away! Unbelievable. It's crazy that he prefers to have food shoved into his mouth than just eating himself! Anyway, after I had forced every bite of food into his mouth, with a little help from Silvia and Danny, we were both covered with sweat and exhausted. Not to mention I had done a shoulders and arms workout routine earlier in the day, so the whole ordeal was especially difficult for my tired muscles! :) After about 2 forcefed bites, he asked to do it by himself. And he did... for one bite. Then it was back to refusing. But it gave me hope... if he realized it was better to feed himself for that short moment... maybe after a few more force feedings he will get the point for GOOD! History makes me doubt that that is likely, but I can hope... right? Wish me luck over the next few days... All I can say is, Luis, I miss you and your wonderful strict presence with our boys! But they are starting to realize that Mom (me!) is in control! Slowly but surely! The best part is... I kept my cool for the most part. Even with his crying and screaming and body-flailing!!! If he had his way, he would eat Macaroni and Cheese and hot dogs every meal... and that is not happening! Bring it on Jackson!!!