In the lost child chapter the chid was lost attracted to the items around him. So the writer describes that when the child was lost he had loosen interest over everything.
The little child was attracted to all the things around him when he was with his parents he just focused on the things around him but didn't realise the importance of his parents . But when he was lost he realised the importance of his parents and was feeling unsafe and had fear inside him which made him cry .