Reactive Attachment Disorder

Reactive Attachment Disorder (or RAD): This term is used to describe a condition that generally appears in children before age five, and is thought to result from a lack of consistent care and nurturing in early years. The disorder is characterized by the inability of a child or infant to establish age- appropriate social contact and relationships with others. Symptoms of the disorder may include a failure to thrive, developmental delays, a refusal to make eye contact, feeding difficulties, hyper-sensitivity to sound and/or touch, failure to initiate or respond to social interactions with others, self-stimulation, indiscriminate sociability and a an unusually high susceptibility to infections.