You as a parent may be very quick to dismiss the behavior of your young toddler as normal as , screaming , crying and normal tantrums are perceived as ‘Child Traits’ but maybe this is the underlying depression you may dismissing as a parent and this may lead to future bad development of the child.
You have asked a difficult question in part because it is unclear. How old is the toddler we are referring to? Is he perhaps two, three or five years old? Secondly, normal children are described as being active and playful and not by the term that you use (hyperactive), which in most instances when used in reference to children implies excessive physical activity usually seen in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
It is also true that some younger children (seven– 10 years) have been diagnosed with depression. This, however, is uncommon. A few months ago we saw a mother of two, who was in her late twenties treated for a depressive illness and seemed to get better. She went back to work.
A few weeks later, she brought her five-year-old son to us because “he did not seem to obey her”. Since her hospitalization and return home, her son had become undisciplined, hyperactive, and only ate “when he chose to”. He refused to go to bed when asked, refused to go to the bathroom to bathe with his brother and blew a tantrum at the drop of a hat.
One relative who had visited the home the weekend before we saw the child stated that the child seemed to be in charge of the home, and had his mother dancing on his little finger. According to the relative, the mother seemed scared of her own child.
The departure of her husband from the scene left a huge gap in the family. He was close to the five-year-old who now missed daddy a great deal. The family was rapidly falling apart.