Do you have the 'key' prop specified on these components? React uses the key to keep track of a particular element. If you specify your own unique key, react will know that the dom representation of a component matches your react instance, and thus not replace the dom element when changes happen in a parent component (apart from if the component or parents are completely unmounted).

Without the implicitly set key, react creates its own index, so if a change happens in the hierarchy above your component, a new key might be given by react, causing the dom element to potentially be replaced when rendering.