ABSTRACT

The "love bombing" method is a simple way to help parents to reduce a wide variety of problem behaviours in their offspring aged from three to early puberty. This chapter examines the theoretical background of the method before providing a brief account of it, and also explains it to parents. It suggests that the method rebalances cortisol levels in the child and enables them to move from an anxious to a secure pattern of attachment. There is now a large body of evidence that early nurture profoundly affects cortisol levels in children. The chapter describes that the research regarding the impact of nurture on cortisol levels is highly pertinent to the possible mechanisms by which love bombing may have its effect. The main theoretical basis for love bombing is, on the one hand, the proposition that genes appear to play little role—remarkably little—in explaining why one sibling is different to another.