Does anyone have a child who has been diagnosed with RAD (reactive attachment disorder)?

Question

A friend of mine adopted from Russia and her son was just diagnosed with RAD. Anyone have any input or success stories with treatment? Or any information that might help her to help her son?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

I have a 10 yr old with RAD and BiPolar disease.  Have her look into the Post Institute.  Just Google it and the home page will come up.

Answer 2

Lots of Adoptees are mis-diagnosed with RAD, not all but many

Best of luck with finding help for the little one

Answer 3

My daughter was diagnosed with RAD also.  What I do know is that she must be very careful in searching out treatment.  There are facilities that treat RAD specifically.  She needs to know exactly what their methods are and how many incidents they've had with children being injured, dying, and/or developing other problems while there.

One facility had a child suffocate during a treatment session.  A month before that social services suggested I sent my daughter to that facility.  After looking into it, I chose to send her to another treatment facility.  While she was safely in the other facility, the child died in the recommended facility.  They put the children into some type of heavy plastic bag that is supposed to be representative of the womb and the child breaks out of the sack and starts fresh with a new life.  But while the child is attempting to break out, the therapist group is holding them down in the sack telling the child that his old life is what is holding him down and if he wants a new life he must fight his way into it.  Anyway, he suffocated in the sack.

The method just seemed a tad too bizarre for me and I wouldn't let my daughter go into treatment there.  She spent years in therapy and as far as I can tell none of it helped her.  But my daughter is also schizophrenic so it is hard to tell which problem is the cause of any particular incident.

The only advice I can give is what we did with our daughter prior to the early onset of her schizophrenia.  Prepare him for changes in advance.  Beginning and Ending of the school year.  Moving to a new home.  Change in teacher.  Change in school.  Anything that is new to the child brings on the fear of abandonment and keeps the child from bonding with the people he is supposed to bond with.  I recommend family therapy in an outpatient setting.  Be open with teachers and other authority figures, sitters, etc.  They need to know how to respond if the child begins to bond with them inappropriately.  My daughter stopped going to recess to stay in the room with the teacher once.  The teacher thought it was cute.  I explained to her that it wouldn't be cute when the school year ended and Lisle acted out for weeks over the loss of the teacher.  Once they understand the teacher can be your best ally.  After all, after the parent, they have the child the most.  Therapy must be provided by someone that both the child and parents are comfortable with.  Your trying to bond with the child, not irritate them to death.

I wish your friend the best of luck.  No one really knows how to fix RAD.  You are trying to get a child to accept new parents when the loss of the birth parents is so traumatic, the thought of losing another set is too much for them to handle so they bond with other people instead.  It is very difficult for everyone involved.  Good luck.

Answer 4

My CASA child has been diagnosed with RAD, has been in therapy for close to a year, is doing well & making progress.  

A lot depends on the degree of RAD the child has & how old he/she is.  I'm reading a book on the subject right now called, "Dandelion on My Pillow, Butcher Knife Beneath" by Nancy Thomas, Terena Thomas, & Beth Thomas.

It's the true story of a family that lived with & loved kids who've killed. This is the story of emotionally lost children & how some have found their way back. The book is co-authored by two of Nancy's grown children, healed survivors of reactive attachment disorder.

Here are a couple more websites on the subject:

http://www.radkids.org/

http://www.radkid.org/

Good luck!

Answer 5

Have her get in contact with the people on these two forums.  

http://www.soulofadoption.com

http://informedadoptions.com

There are people on both of these forums that deal with this issue.

Answer 6

Some so-called RAD therapies are dangerous, and have even led to the deaths of children.  Here are some things to avoid:

http://www.quackwatch.org/search/webglim...