Much to my mother's initial horror, I never spoon fed the kid rice cereal. In fact I didn't spoon feed him at all. Before he was born I decided that I would be allowing him to self feed. When he was a little over 6 months old we put him in his high chair and gave him a piece of avocado...and he LOVED it.
From there we experimented with steamed veggies, roasted sweet potatoes, peaches, pears, oatmeal balls, veggie pancakes...pretty much anything he could gum. This method of feeding babies is called baby led weaning or baby led solids. It's becoming increasingly popular for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that you don't have to spend hours spoon feeding a baby and you can enjoy meals together as a family. Another benefit is that children who are introduced to foods this way are less likely to choke as they get older because they learned to chew first, then swallow (while spoon feeding teaches swallowing first).
