Parents of Reactive Attachment Disordered children may often hear from well-meaning supporters that "all children do that". It is important for these people to remember that Reactive Attachment Disordered children are mentally ill. These children repeat various bizarre behaviours hundreds of times every day as opposed to a healthy child who might test his or her parents 5-10 times per day and without the same severity. Some examples are below. Every child exhibits his/her attachment disorder to different extents and in different ways. The following are actual known behaviours and more may be added at a later time.
"All Children" do not:
- regularly wet the bed past the age of 5 or 6
- wet the bed in response to not getting their own way, anger at bedtime or clean sheets being put on the bed
- scream non-stop for 9 hours and not lose their voice
- sit at the table for 4+ hours rather than say, "May I be excused from the table please?"
- focus incessantly on food and become unable to think if food is present
- urinate on the laundry in their room
- remove the heating vent in their bedrooms and urinate/defecate in them
- wipe feces on their stuffed animals
- pick their noses till there is enough blood to cover two sleeves on their shirts
- wipe blood, snot, etc., on the walls, blankets, toys in their rooms
- chew through their beds
- chew on other objects just to leave teethmarks
- rip out their baby teeth "secretly" in the middle of the night before they're ready, leaving themselves covered in blood
- secretly rip out their baby teeth, chew them up and then shove them down cracks in their floor so their parents and tooth fairy never see them
- line up their shoes backwards to everyone else
- chew the walls
- chew the counter tops
- take apart containers in the bathroom and fill them with water
- break the faucet taps
- break the drain in the sink
- shove whole bars of soap down the sink drain because they're angry
- wave at strangers
- talk sweetly to strangers in an attempt to find a new home
- constantly shop for new parents
- attract the attention of passers-by or drive through window workers through persistent and unending eye contact and smiles "charming"
- routinely put their clothes on backwards
- talk non-stop
- ask dumb questions
- repeat what you say to no end
- cry for no reason
- refuse to speak to you about what is bothering them because then you might "know" something important about them
- cry and tantrum until they throw up
- bang their heads against the wall
- attack adults by lunging for them, scratching, biting, clawing pinching
- hurt animals repetively
- hurt other children repetively
- hurt other children in front of the teacher who attempted to garner an apology
- followed by hurting the teacher, all at 5 years of age
- tell their parents they will kill them, at 3 and 4 years of age
- tell a teacher they will kill him/her, at 4 years of age
- scrape the paint off the walls in their room
- need an alarm on their bedroom door so the rest of the family can sleep at night
- purposefully throw themselves on the playground to incur injury and subsequent sympathy and attention from non-family members such as teachers
- pick at minor sores until they keep becoming injured and leave scars
- pull at their ears until they are separating from their heads
- oppose abolutely everything to do with their parents
- focus on and talk incessantly about blood, gore, death, as young as 4 years of age
- repair damage they've caused, then damage it again, over and over
- break or damage the nice things they've been given
- bite other children at the age of 5 years, for no reason
- eat 7 courses of food and ask for more
- sneak pens into the waistband of their pants when no one is looking to ruin the sheets and walls in a room
- defecate in their pants as old as 15 years of age
- try to make their parents angry on a regular basis, "just to see what happens"
- kill animals
- try to kill their siblings by feeding them food they are allergic to
- tell their teachers they are not fed at home
- kiss, hug, and climb into the laps of strangers
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