It is believed that infants grieve. If there are people who have been consistently present in a baby's life, the child will have a sense of something missing. A young child often does not initially respond to hearing that someone has died.
Many parents are concerned that their child has no initial reaction or visible grief.
It is important to remember that a young child's perception is oriented in the five basic senses. It is concrete, short-range and based on what is felt in the moment. A young child does not comprehend the concept of death. A child's missing of the person who has died will not necessarily be as a result of hearing that that person is dead. Very young children may grieve a specific person.