The first of the factors which encourage the persistent refusal 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 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.