Your friend must be feeling quite tired, and ready for some time to herself. Her little one is obviously a great little bfer, which is great for him, but can take its toll on his mum at times.

Often people mistake the signs of readiness for solids. Babies will watch everything and try and grab at everything. Doing this with food doesn't necessarily mean they are ready to eat. This is one of the great things about Baby Led Solids however - you don't need to know when your baby is ready. At 6 months you can start putting finger foods in front of him and he will eat them when he's ready. Usually this is a gradual process - first he'll touch, then play, then smell, then taste, and then when he's ready, he'll eat. You can try googling Baby Led Solids or Infant Led Weaning for more information, or there is a good video clip by Gill Rapley (who was the first to call this Baby Led Solids) here - YouTube - Baby-led Weaning - A Developmental Approach to the Introduction of Solid Foods.

As your friend is hoping, solids will replace milk feeds. While this might seem appealing however, it is not always a good thing, especially if it happens too quickly. Milk is still the main nutrition source needed for growth and development until 12 months or so of age. Babies who start eating too much solids won't drink enough milk and often start waking more often in the night to try and make up for it. Starting slowly is a good idea.

In the meantime, your friend might have some luck with offering (or with having someone else offer) Expressed Breast Milk (EBM) or even water in a sippy cup, so that your friend can take some time out. Breastfed babies are usually able to drink from a sippy cup from 3 months of age, by 6 months he can probably also manage a straw cup. Even if that fails, all babies can drink from a cup held to their mouths from birth, so there are other ways for your friend's DS to drink if she wants or needs to go out. Also, as marcellus has said, babies at that age can manage for a few hours without a feed during the day every now and then, and if he is thirsty he will drink what is offered.

Hopefully this will help her to have the confidence to take a much deserved break!