The child had serious behavior problems, and the mother was told the child suffered from a condition called attachment disorder. Her desperation over repeated failures to find helpful treatment for her child caused her to resort to an unorthodox intervention that was labeled treatment. She cried out to the adults that she could not breathe, but they held tightly and smothered her. At Boys Town we have been working with troubled children for more than 80 years. We know there are no simple solutions but understand that sometimes it is tempting to believe there are.
Many children bear the emotional wounds of serious abuse and neglect.
We help many of these children by teaching them that human relationships can be rewarding, teaching them the difference between right and wrong and teaching them better ways to live with others. When we are not successful in helping them with those methods, we do not resort to dangerous, unproven techniques. Use of physical force is not treatment. Common sense tells us that sometimes we must hold a child to keep him or her from engaging in dangerous behavior - like running into heavy traffic. There is no treatment value to restraining or holding a child against his or her will.