People usually associate reactive attachment disorder with adoption and we tend to imagine very negative scenarios. While part of the time this is accurate, and children struggling with reactive attachment disorder come from a very difficult background related to abuse or neglect or violence or substance abuse in the birth home, this kind of situation is not always behind it. 

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Many parents do not even consider the possibility of RAD due to their children being biologically theirs. Their logic is understandable because usually these severe diagnoses are associated with the reasons previously mentioned, but We also have some factors that we need to consider in order to make an appropriate analysis.  

 

When we are talking about trauma, we cannot pretend to hold the same standards for everyone. Each child is so different that what can be traumatic for some might not be for others. Even then every infant reacts differently in response to trauma. For example if we had two babies going through exactly the same amount and kind of abuse and negligence at the exact same age and maybe simultaneously, even then it would be possible that one of them developed RAD and the other one didn't. 

 

That being said, the possibility of a child developing this condition has a lot to do with the sense of protection the infant might feel given to them when facing what is perceived as suffering or danger. Many of the times this happens even in utero. 

 

We have had moms asking us why their children have RAD if they are birth children and they live in a stable healthy home environment. No drugs, no alcohol, no violence, no neglect… 

 

Then why are their children struggling with attachment issues? 

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There are different possible answers and some of them go back to the pregnancy.

 

One of the possible reasons a child might develop rad is in utero trauma. That might be a traumatic birth, fetal pain, accidents… However, It's not limited to physical situations.

 

When a woman is pregnant and she is stressed or depressed her brain produces different chemicals that can affect the fetus. It's not necessarily that the baby is gonna feel what the mom is feeling, but all those chemicals definitely affect the fetus' development. 

 

It's very important to also mention that all these emotions are also not always under the mother's control, since the pregnancy period is very well known for the major influence the hormonal and body changes have over the women.

 

Another possible cause of RAD might be ongoing intense pain on the infant. A good example are colics, ear infections, anything that the baby might have considered intense suffering without anyone taking it away. 

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Another possibility would be the premature babies who have to stay in NICU and are not able to bond with their primary caregivers when born for a significant period of time… 

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RAD in a birth child with no antecedentes of neglect, drugs or abuse is possible. And that it's not a reflect of the parents' performance.