My 3 year old is overall typical I think, generally happy but has the odd tantrum. Last few weeks when he's started having a meltdown about something he's then started doing something very strange and scary - almost not breathing, crying silently, going purple in the face, sort of crying so hard he's almost holding his breath and looking like he's having a heart attack. It's horrible to watch him get so worked up.
It's only just started happening and the trigger for the meltdown is about the usual small things young children have tantrums over, eg getting dressed and wanting a different t-shirt, wanting to get / hold something out of bounds / unsafe and being told no, not ready to go into / come out of the bath etc etc.
We do use strategies from "How to Talk..." etc and try to avoid tantrum triggers at all costs, no raised voices etc but like most children it's not always possible to avoid one. However it's really the weird breathing / purple face thing I'm worried about. Before this his occasional tantrums were more typical - just screaming and crying loudly.
Any experiences of this type of response?