Please help- toddler will not eat

Yes, I know, every toddler won’t eat. Yes, I know, it’s a phase. But my daughter is 22 mo and this has been going on since she was 15 months, so this is a pretty long phase and it’s getting worse. She won’t eat so many things she used to eat. Every meal is a battle.

Well now my husband and I are arguing on how to deal with this because like I said, it’s getting worse. For lunch today I gave her something she liked a while ago, but I haven’t given it to her in a while. She wouldn’t even try it.

My husband thinks when she doesn’t eat (and I’m not talking about doesn’t eat much, I’m talking about when she won’t take a bite at all, especially of something she used to enjoy) she needs to be punished and put in time-out.

I am more in favor of the natural consequence of she doesn’t eat, she goes hungry. I don’t think she is old enough to understand the connection between I’m in timeout because I didn’t eat my food (but my daughter is very smart, and very verbal, so I don’t know).

My husband thinks that at every meal she’s just going to say “get down” immediately and I’ll let her leave. But I do make sure she sits at the table for a while before I let her go.

I just don’t know what to do anymore. What is the best way to encourage her to eat? I just don’t think an actual punishment is the way to go about it.

I don’t feed my daughter crazy foods or things she doesn’t like. I don’t expect her to eat a whole plate of something she truly doesn’t like. I just want her to at least try things and eat what I know she likes.

Please help! I’m desperate!

Edit- please also note my child does eat some food, I’m not letting her starve herself. It just very frequently she will skip entire meals or only eat a couple bites. She’s not underweight, but she’s gaining weight very slowly. She didn’t gain any weight between her 15 and 18 mo appointments, but she has gained some since then. She eats much better for her babysitter than for me, but because her babysitter is closed because of shelter in place orders, I have to figure out how to feed her for 3 meals a day now. Which is why this is frustrating me to tears these days.

I try not to give her any snacks during the day because I want her to be hungry for meals. I don’t give her milk with her meal until she asks for it, which is usually after she has taken some bites.