Baby Led Weaning?

So I guess this is the new "thing" that is cool in parenting. Here is some info. Long story short, I guess you give baby "real" food and let them do with it what they want. There are no purees, and no spoon feeding. You just give the kid appropriate size chunks of food, and let them feed it to themselves. The idea being that a child will eat what they want/need/like, and they will eat as much of it as they need. Instead of the parent deciding how much to give the child, etc.

So I do like some things about this idea. I like that the child is getting hands on with the food. They are given the chance to feed themselves from day 1 (of solids) and that they really get to explore different foods. As you may or may not know, solid food is rather irrelevant for the first year, and breastmilk or formula is the main source of nutrition. Food prior to a year is really for practice, and learning to like other tastes and textures. So the amount of food they get is not really important, especially at the the beginning of weaning (6ish months).

The only thing I don't like is that you aren't "allowed" to feed baby from a spoon, or feed purees. I just don't like anything that has stringent rules like that.

So I like the idea of combining the two methods. I have always made my kiddos baby food, and have started making Ava's. She is just 5 months old now, so she hasn't eaten any of it, but it's in the freezer. Sweet potatoes, beets, green beans so far. And tonight, we did avocado, in the BLW form. She has been EXTREMELY interested in our food and drinks for the last few weeks. To the point it is almost difficult to eat a meal with her around because she is trying so hard to get our food. So,  we did it. And she loved it. I did put some in her mouth, and she did like it. That is also against the BLW rules :) But she also did manage to get some into her own mouth, and she seemed to have a lot of fun. And she kept her little grubby hands out of my food!

So mommas, what are your thoughts on it? And what do you plan to do?

Tomorrow, out to get sippy cups! My non-bottle loving child may just take breastmilk from a sippy! We will see! Would make my life a lot easier if she will actually drink milk when I am away....