I haven't read through the whole article, or this thread, so I don't have a feel for the response. But I wanted to say that I went to the ABA seminar yesterday, and heard Gill speak. She also presented video footage. What she's talking about makes alot of sense to me as a mother, and this way of feeding really works in our household.
I was talking about this with my MCHN last week and she went to that seminar and found it to be fascinating. I had already decided this was how we were going to do things (the biggest one being less work for me in having to puree the foods) and it just makes so much sense kwim? We had a huge chat about it - I'm really lucky that this time I got a MCHN that is aligned with my thoughts on things. Although we have only just started on solids late last week and it is cereal, I want him to get used to the idea of swallowing food. He has had an arrowroot biscuit and managed that fine, so I think by next week it will be onto the finger food. Although there will be some foods like my homemade vege soup that will be fed to him from a spoon - as he sits with his siblings and sees them eat soup from a spoon - there will always be some foods that need to be spoon fed if you want them to have it. So overall I am stoked with myself that I waited till 6mths this time as there is such a huge difference in development.

BTW - it has nothing to do with the age of the child for those defending their stance to introduce solids earlier than 6mths, but surely you can see how this all fits together - early infant milk feeding and then baby led solids is all linked together and it is a natural progression for them in their development to move from milk to finger fed solids. As for wether they will 'starve' or not, thats an individual thing, there will always be babies that need something more than what they are getting at some stage and yes, it is up to us as their parents to take that step, but we can't ignore the information we have about early solids and we have to be more aware and take that into account. The guidelines have come about from some serious and in-depth study and research about it and isn't just something 'made up' - unlike years ago when it was an advertising free-for-all and baby food companies could do and say what they liked.