Advice on a better way to extend C++ STL container with user-defined methods

I inherited from C++ STL container and add my own methods to it. The rationale was such that to the clients, it will look act a regular list, yet has application-specific methods they can readily be called.

This works fine, but I have read numerous posts about not inheriting from STL. Can someone provide a concrete advice of how I might write the code below in a better way?

class Item
{
  int a;
  int b;
  int c;

  int SpecialB()
  {
    return a * b + c;
  }
};

class ItemList : public std::vector<Item>
{
  int MaxA()
  {
    if( this->empty() )
      throw;

    int maxA = (*this)[0].a;

    for( int idx = 1; idx < this->size(); idx++ )
    {
      if( (*this)[idx].a > maxA )
      {
        maxA = (*this)[idx].a;
      }
    }
    return maxA;
  }

  int SpecialB()
  {
    if( this->empty() )
      throw;

    int specialB = (*this)[0].SpecialB();

    for( int idx = 1; idx < this->size(); idx++ )
    {
      if( (*this)[idx].SpecialB() < specialB )
      {
        specialB -= (*this)[idx].c;
      }
    }
    return specialB;
  }

  int AvgC()
  {
    if( this->empty() )
      throw;

    int cSum = 0;
    for( int idx = 0; idx < this->size(); idx++ )
    {
      cSum += (*this)[idx].c;
    }

    return cSum / this->size(); // average
  }
};

EDIT: Thanks for a bunch of thoughtful answers. I will create helper functions instead and from now on will never inherit from STL containers.