What causes reactive attachment disorder and other attachment problems?
Reactive attachment disorder and other attachment problems occur when children have been unable to consistently connect with a parent or primary caregiver. This can happen for many reasons: • A baby cries and no one responds or offers comfort. • A baby is hungry or wet, and they aren’t attended to for hours. • No one looks at, talks to, or smiles at the baby, so the baby feels alone. • A young child gets attention only by acting out or displaying other extreme behaviors. • A young child or baby is mistreated or abused. • Sometimes the child’s needs are met and sometimes they aren’t. The child never knows what to expect. • The infant or young child is hospitalized or separated from his or her parents. • A baby or young child is moved from one caregiver to another (can be the result of adoption, foster care, or the loss of a parent). • The parent is emotionally unavailable because of depression, an illness, or a substance abuse problem. As the examples show, sometimes the circumstances t
