Stroppy eight month old - please help!

[Scootergirl]

My DS, who's eight months old, has gone from being textbook baby to baby demon! He screams every time I put him down (not even when I leave the room, just when I'm not actually holding him) to the point where he goes purple and looks like he's about to have some kind of fit..... which is nice...
He's not eating much either, which doesn't help, because he only wants to feed himself but hasn't got any teeth or the co-ordination to get much into his mouth apart from toast fingers.
Any tips?
DH and I are supposed to be celebrating his return from Afghanistan with a romantic couple of days away but I can't imagine the grandparents coping with this!

Hi Scootergirl.

If he can manage a toast finger he can probably manage other soft finger food like bannana, ripe pear, cooked vegies also seem to go down quite well. Don't worry about the spoon too much just make sure everything is cooked really well and cut into cuncks that he can pick up with his fingers and shove in his mouth (works a treat with ds).

Is he teething? D gets very clingy when he has teeth comming through.

We have manged to leave the kids with grandparents for short spells by ensuring that DD and ds are engaged in something together and not particularly mindful of what we are up to then sneaking out the room. I know it isn't the ideal way of doing it but it works at the moment for us.

The cookies and jelly beans were great the kids loved them. Dh enjoyed sharing some grown up chocolate. And D loves his sit and ride Thomas. The beef Jerky however was not such a great hit. Thank DD for them for us anyway though iykwim. My DD is still writing her letters as it takes forever when you are 4. 1 every few days is as much as we can manage.

Good luck getting you romantic break.

oops that should be cut into chunks.

Thanks - I'm glad they liked the stuff
Beef jerky is not such a hit with me either but DD does love it dearly - weird child!
Thanks for the advice and I hope you had a fab Christmas and have a good year xx