If the child keeps crying in an obstinate effort to have it own way, it should be brought round by persuasion and coaxing. Nothing can be gained by getting annoyed or losing your temper. Some children are at first cheerful and obedient, but their behavior undergoes a sudden alteration, and they become irritable, quarrelsome and mischievous. An infectious disease or medical condition may just probably lie at the root of such a sudden and drastic change. It would therefore be sensible to check the temperature and general health of the child to make sure that it is not such an infection that is responsible for the change.
Most children tend from a very young age to generate difficulties about food. The problem of likes and dislikes is a grave one. The child should be given various items of foodstuff according to its preferences. Even if it refuses food, it should be induced by loving and tender persuasion to take some food even if the good is taken in small quantities at that time. This will help to shape good feeding habits. Habits, however, are not formed at once. Both patience and love are necessary to accomplish that. Never force a child to eat by intimidating it. Some parents compel their children into drinking milk. This results in the development of a symptom of bigotry in the mind of the child, not only against milk but also against the parents themselves. Its kind mind is affected adversely by threats and coercion. If the child really has an dislike to milk, stop giving it milk for some time. It may happen that the child will one day, of its own agreement, ask for milk.
