creature who has perhaps already given you no end of
trouble regarding its feeding, will begin to lose in weight, and even
the doctor often becomes so alarmed that he advises against all
further methods of discipline. We think this is usually a mistake.
Both the nutrition and discipline should be kept in mind and carried
harmoniously through to a successful finish. It will be necessary
during such troublous times to conserve both the physical and nervous
strength of the child; it should not be allowed to run about and
over-play, as such high strung children often do. It should be given
a reasonable amount of physical exercise, and two or three times a day
should have short periods of complete isolation in the nursery, where
it may quietly play with its blocks and toys, sing and croon or talk
as the case may be, but should be left entirely alone.

Wise efforts should be put forth to keep the feeding up to the proper
number of calories, and to see, if the child does not gain during this
disciplinary struggle, that at least it does not lose; and I give it
as my experience that I have yet to see a case in which both the
child's nutrition and discipline cannot be efficiently maintained at
one and the same time, though it does sometimes require adroit
scientific and artistic management. But the game we are playing is
worth the effort--the battle must be fought--and it can be fought with
the least suffering and sorrowing the earlier the conflict is waged to
a successful issue.

I am decidedly opposed to allowing these young nervous children to
over-play and thus wear themselves out unduly. This over exhaustion
sometimes renders the training of the child much more difficult, as it
is a well-known fact that we are all much more irritable and lacking
in self-control when we are tired, more especially when we are
over-tired and fatigued.

Let me emphasize the importance and value of proper periods of
isolation--complete rest and partial physical relaxation. You can take
a child who has gotten up wrong in the morning, whose nerves are
running away with him, who is irritable, crying at everything that
happens, who even rejects the food prepared for him, and who, when
spoken to and commanded to stop crying, yells all the louder--I say
you can take such a little one back to its crib, place it in the bed
and smilingly walk out of the room. After a transient outburst of
crying, within a very few minutes you can return to find a perf