ly that he has eaten so much that he must eat no more.
If in spite of every care antipathies to certain articles of food
appear and persist, we must be content to bide our time. When the
child grows of an age to reason, we should seize every opportunity to
make him feel that his persistent refusal is a little ridiculous and
childish. Little by little the seed is sown, and will germinate till
one day we shall note with surprise that he has taken of his own
accord that which he has neglected for so long and with such
obstinacy.

But the force which is acting most strongly in producing this refusal
of food is the force of which we have spoken in a previous
chapter--the force which results in negativism, the force which is in
reality the habit of opposition, the love of power, and the desire to
attract attention. Here again the refusal of food, if due to this
cause, is never the sole manifestation of the fault. Just as the delay
in learning to swallow and to chew properly and to feed himself is
part of a general want of dexterity and capacity manifested in all his
actions, so it will seldom happen that the child's anxiety to oppose
is only seen at meal-times. Watch a nervous child in the nursery
before the dinner hour. He is cross and restless and inclined to cry.
The nurse hands him a doll, and he throws it away saying, "No, no
doll." At the same moment he may catch sight of his ball, and it too
is violently rejected, "No, no ball." Everything in turn is treated in
the same way. Finally he falls upon his nurse, crying and beating her
with his hands, saying, "No, no Nurse." If that long-suffering woman
at that moment summons him to dinner, it will be strange indeed if his
attitude is not "No, no dinner," and "No, no" to every mouthful
offered him. How strong this love of opposition may be is illustrated
by the case of a little boy who was brought to me for refusal of food.
Three weeks before, he had been taken in a motor-car to his
grandfather's to midday dinner on Sunday, when his absolute refusal of
food had spoiled the day and had occupied the attention and the
efforts of the whole party. Doubtless he had enjoyed himself, for
three weeks later, when he caught sight of the car which was to bring
him to me, and which he had not seen in the interval, he at once said,
"Not eat my dinner." This child's father told me that the sight or
sound of the preparation of a meal was enough to bring on a paroxysm
of opposition. Now thi