Some have said that "tantrums" are purposeful attempts by a child in control of himself to manipulate a situation; "meltdowns" are cognitive overload by a child overwhelmed and therefore not in control of himself. Effective parenting may respond differently to tantrums than to meltdowns.
Well, in that case, for DW, it is tantrums, and for me, I define those episodes as meltdowns. In fact, I guess sometimes it is tantrums, but then things last for few minutes and he quickly realizes that it is a dead-end and stops. He then will scream, yell, but soon come to eat or whatever is on the schedule
