Son having tantrums at me for throwing things away and forcing himself to eat

[edukation]

My ds is just 5 and started in YR this year. He is a sensitive little boy who is a deep thinker and reads very well for his age (reading The Magic Faraway Tree and The Magicians Nephew and pretty much anything he can pick up himself). However in the last few weeks he developed a real problem with throwing things away. I originally posted in a different thread re a problem with food - after an eco character came into school he is insisting he has to eat everything on his plate. What's the problem you may ask? Well we have always given everything we eat to our kids and just told them to taste it all - they don't have to eat it. But now he is trying to force it all down even when he is gagging at retching. He also insisted he wanted to keep an apple core and when I made him put it in the bin he threw a real tantrum (which is totally out of character) screaming at me and shouting how dare I take his apple core.

However it now occurs to me it is not just food. I threw out a pack of leaflets I had received and he was absolutely beside himself over it - and not for a short time- for days. And today school sent a note about head lice home and it got wet so I put it in the bin and have had a similar reaction. His reaction is so extreme and out of character I am really worried about it. Should I see a doctor? I really don't know who to go to about this? Any ideas about how I tackle it?

Well, why not teach him about recycling?

Then leaflets, paper things, plastic bottles, glass, cardboard, tins etc could go in a recycling bin, which isn't throwing them away.
Food waste you could compost, either yourself or find out if his school or your local council has a food waste collection service. That way, things he doesn't want to eat can go in the compost.

Some things you will have to throw away but at least the food issue will be sorted.

Are you sure he's not just overwhelmed by school? My ds has just started in Reception and while he seems to be very much enjoying school, after I pick him off he often seems to be on a hair-trigger and tiny things can set him off into floods of tears. This is very unlike him. I think he's tired and stressed at keeping it all together during the day. Teaching about recycling sounds a a great idea, maybe in combination with keeping things outside of school very low key and unexciting?

Thanks for the responses.

We do recycle and compost our waste and we tell him that it is going to be reused and have shown him the compost heap but he still sees it as getting rid of it and wants to use/keep it himself. Today it was tipping away the dregs from the cup he had had by his bed overnight and a tiny piece of gingerbread man his brother had dropped on the floor which he tried to force him to eat and when we said he couldn't he tried to eat it himself.

I am wondering if it is to do with starting school though - particularly the fact that because he now goes all day he doesn't get the one on one time he used to get when his brother was asleep in the afternoon. When he gets in from school he usually wants to do his homework and then read and by the time he is ready I am making the tea so it is hard to fit the 1 on 1 in. I am wondering if the attention he got when he did it the first time prompted him to continue and it is more attention seeking. That I can cope with - it is just if it is some sort of obsession that I was worried.