My DD is a bit younger but is the same, she is not a picky eater but she would rather play than sit down to eat unless she is really hungry. I personally don't mind her snacking, so long as she is eating healthy food then I don't really care what time of day it happens. We always sit down for meal times, but if she doesn't eat much I don't make a big deal of it. Then if she later says she's hungry she just gets whatever is leftover from he previous meal. So if she doesn't eat much lunch then I just put her plate in the fridge, then in the afternoon if she says she's hungry then she gets her lunch plate to eat. She tends to eat almost non-stop all morning, and it tapers off through the afternoon. She also has free access to our garden so will pick peas and carrots to eat whenever she feels like snacking. The only time we restrict her eating is after 3 pm, otherwise she won't eat dinner and then wakes up hungry in the night, but as long as she has a few bites of dinner then she can get through until breakfast. Only they know when they are hungry, and you can't force them to eat, so I find it's easier not to fight it and just make sure the foods offered are nutritious regardless of what time of day they are eating. My husband works in paediatric health care and a lot of his colleagues recommend 5-6 small meals a day rather than 3 large meals (which is also often recommended for adults), so we have just learned to not stress too much about food consumption during our "scheduled" meal times.
