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 positively 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