of
food is the extreme susceptibility of the child to suggestion. A
particular article of diet may be refused on one occasion, perhaps in
pique, because another more favoured dish was hoped for or expected,
or perhaps because the taste is not yet familiar. Then if on this
occasion a struggle for the mastery is waged, and a painful impression
is made on the child's mind connecting this particular dish with
struggling and tears, from that day forward the child may persistently
refuse it on every occasion it is offered. Matters are made worse if
the nurse, anticipating refusal, attempts to overcome the resistance
by peremptory orders, or by excessive praise extolling the delicious
flavour with such fervour that the child's suspicions are at once
aroused. Previous experience has made him connect these excessive
praises with articles which have aroused his distaste. If these fads
and fancies on the part of the child are to be avoided, it is
essential that we should do nothing to focus his attention on his
refusal. It is better that his dinner should be curtailed on one
occasion than that taste and appetite should be perverted perhaps for
years. Every nurse or mother should cultivate an off-hand, detached
manner of feeding the child, and should patiently continue to offer
the food without uncalled-for comments or exhortations. Let her always
remember the force of suggestion on the child's mind, and that a
confident manner which never questions the child's acceptance will
meet with acceptance, while a hesitating address, from fear of the
impending refusal, will be apt to meet with refusal. Sometimes a still
worse fault manifests itself, when nurse and mother speak before the
child of the smallness of his appetite, and of his persistent refusal
of this or that article of diet. The suggestion then acts still more
powerfully on his mind. He is aware that the whole household is
distressed by his peculiarity, and he grows to identify it with his
own individuality, and to regard himself with some satisfaction as
possessing this mark of distinction. If there is any difficulty of
this sort it is often directly curative to reverse the suggestion and
to speak before him of his improving appetite, and to say that he
begins every day to eat better and better, even if to do so we have to
break a good rule never to say to the child what is not strictly true.
Or once or twice we may take his plate away before he has finished,
saying positive