Thanks for your thoughts and help. I'm feeling calmer now and it has been really nice to read your responses.

He is pretty happy- his fuse is short so the temper seems to flare up fairly often but otherwise he is happy and really, if we could just spend the whole day on his agenda with me right next to him I think he'd be perfectly content.

I double checked our bread- thanks for the tip crazylady. I have heard about the preservatives in bread being an issue but had forgotten about it. Our bread seems fine. We mostly buy the health-nut type multigrains and they don't seem to have nasties in them. Otherwise he eats additive free nut butters, organic corn thins and rice cakes, organic apples, organic milk... mostly organic and expensive "healthy" foods. But I know some healthy foods can trigger some children so I wasn't sure if I should be doing more there.

His speech was very advanced at first but has slowed down now and in some ways has regressed as he doesn't say things he used to be able to say, but instead gets straight into the tantrum. Maybe when he knows he can say it more clearly he'll be happy to talk about his needs/wants a bit more.

Thanks for the reassurance that this can be normal. I'll keep riding it out for longer and reassess if he seems to not be growing out of it.

at least your son is never going to be a pushover in life if he's that dedicated to demonstrating how he feels. Great display of passion and feeling, now just to channel it!
This is such a lovely thing to say- thank you! This is how I generally feel about him and his development- I see the 'struggles' of childhood in a positive way and know that children are 'good', not 'bad' but I was feeling overwhelmed today (and wondering if I had my head in the sand) so it was nice to hear.

The thing is, my son is exactly as I was as a child (though better actually)! My Mum couldn't go shopping with me because I couldn't even last 5mins but I have grown out of it And I do have a strong sense of personal justice and a person's right to be heard. This has never wavered and I know it was the cause of my angst as a child. I just wish my son could realise that I'm on his side and I agree with him so he wouldn't feel the need to throw himself on the floor.

On further reflection this morning was a little doomed as we had already been to our veggie co-op before playgroup and I think my son expected us to be going home when we got in the car. He's not the biggest fan of playgroup either as he's an introvert and he hadn't been all that happy the whole time we had been there... I just hadn't expected a major melt-down.