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The twisting pinches, the spitting, biting and kicking, the food throwing, the aversion to hugs, the obscene hand gestures and the sexual aggression, the destruction of anything he touched -- all this would come later.
In the beginning, he was just a blond, blue-eyed 3-year-old from Russia in need of a home.
He was one of thousands of abandoned children in foreign orphanages and the U.S. foster care system, and the Sandy couple -- like other parents willing to open their homes and heart -- figured love could conquer about any challenge.
"You've got this life that is so wonderful and you want to share it, to bring this little child into the household, with no idea what the problems can be," says Barbara, whose real name is being withheld to protect the identity of the family.
They didn't know much about how deeply or the myriad ways a bad beginning can affect a child. They had heard only vaguely of attachment disorder, the thing that would forever change their family.
Diagnosis for Debate: An emotional debate about reactive attachment disorder -- its diagnosis and treatment -- is under way following the death of 4-year-old Cassandra Killpack of Springville on June 10 from water intoxication. Adoptive parents Richard and Jennete Killpack, who have been charged with her death, say therapists at Cascade Center for Family Growth in Orem who were treating the girl for the disorder advised them to force Cassandra to drink water as a consequence of bad behavior. The therapists deny that claim.
Cassandra may be the sixth child diagnosed with or with symptoms of reactive attachment disorder to die nationwide as a result of unconventional therapy or at the hands of an overwhelmed parent.
Doctors know what causes the attachment disorder but are less certain how to fix it. Simply put, it happens when an infant fails to form emotional attachments in the critical first years of life. These children typically have been abused physically, emotionally or sexually, and have had multiple caregivers. Often, the children have spent their short lives in an orphanage or bouncing back and forth between a birth mother and state custody or moving from one foster home to another.
Prenatal care may be a factor, too,...