Tantrum avoidance techniques?

[NotQuiteCockney]

We have a new tantrum trigger in our house. If I have a container of food, and won't give it all to DS2, he loses it. This is ok when it's something small, but when it's a 500g bag of dried cranberries, well, I'm not handing it over.

I've tried decanting an appropriate amount of whatever he wants into a little pot for him. This does not work.

Any other ideas? We had a really nasty tantrum yesterday over a bag of nuts, that I didn't want him to drop all over the street.

Get him to put his hand in the big bag and put them in the pot himself. If it doesn't work say can he put some in a pot for you as you want some as well, when yours is in the pot, yum yum oh, Do you know? I think they taste even better from the pot! Do you want yours in a pot to see?

Hmm, might be worth a go, if I can manage it before he's off on one ...

(Last time, I gave him a pot of cranberries, and he threw it on the floor.)

What I do with mine is say before I start something that's likely to be a problem or before he really starts acting up is that he has two choices and it's up to him which he chooses, then I explain them and the consequences. So in this case it could be have some of what you're having or have none of it. Having some can be fun for him, obviously, if the situation allows.

I always ignore tantrums as well, or say something like "I understand you're frustrated, but x can't happen because of y and z" then continue as normal.

Yeah, I ignore tantrums as much as possible.

We had this same bloody tantrum today, over the same bloody bag of nuts. I've removed them from the knapsack, and will stick to small things I'm happy to give him, from now on.