LOSS OF APPETITE.--If a child complains of not being hungry, and will not take enough food, and if this condition continues for some time, we must regard the matter as being abnormal and find the cause. This is necessary because a child must eat in order to maintain a certain standard of growth and vitality. These children are not sick; they are active and continue to play as usual and they sleep soundly, but they have no appetite. One of the most frequent causes of this condition is too frequent feedings. Some children are naturally small eaters. They thrive and maintain a satisfactory weight; their system seems not to demand large quantities or even ordinary quantities of food. Parents observe this habit of little eating and begin to coax and bribe the child to eat more at meal time, and to eat between meals. In this way the child really overeats, the appetite becomes capricious, and the stomach rebels. In a very short time the condition of "loss of appetite" is established as a consequence. Another cause is the drinking of too much milk, and yet another and very common cause is indiscriminate eating of candy, cakes crackers, and fruit between meals. Children who are fed at the table with adults eat things they should not eat, and spoil their digestive organs and loss of appetite is the result. The Scotch custom of compelling children to eat at a separate table is an excellent one. They are not tempted to ask for things they cannot have. Lack of fresh air and exercise frequently results in impaired appetite. TREATMENT.--The very first thing to do with these children is to stop any habit that may be responsible for the loss of appetite. If the child has been eating between meals, stop it absolutely. If too much milk has been taken, stop milk entirely. If the child has not been getting enough fresh air, or if it has been sleeping in a badly ventilated room, or if baths have been too infrequent, rectify the fault. If eating at the family table and fed indiscriminately, change the programme; feed him before the family sits down to meals. Now regulate the time of feeding to suit the age of the child and adhere to strict regularity. It is a pernicious and absolutely wrong custom to force children to eat, or to coax them to eat when they do not want to eat. Loss of appetite will never be cured by forced feeding, or by reducing the interval between feedings, or by giving the child stronger or more concentrated food under the mistaken idea that in this way the loss of appetite can be "made up." The interval of feeding should rather be lengthened than otherwise in order to give the digestive organs an opportunity to regain the normal desire for food. Pay strict attention to the bowels. Be certain the child has a daily satisfactory movement and that he drinks frequently between meals. If the child does not promptly respond to the proper hygienic and dietary treatment as outlined above there are two things that can be done: