Gill,
 You say "it has always seemed to me entirely logical that a baby's outward
abilities ( e.g. to reach out and grab food and take it to his mouth) would
keep pace with his inward abilities (i.e. to produce appropriate enzymes for
digestion of said food)", isn't it true that this also applies to the time
that babies start reaching out for anything and putting it in their mouths?
Why do we have to assume that they are reaching out because they are hungry?
They want to experiment in the same way that they do with things!

" We don't decide for our children the age at which they should start to
crawl, walk etc. so why should we decide for them when they are ready for
solids? "  This is true, yet mothers are made to feel guilty if their child is
not walking or crawling by a certain age; on the other hand, it is a wonderful
thing if a baby is walking by 9 or 10 months of age!!  Who says?  What else is
the child doing or not doing?  It is important to look at each child
individually.

"If we were prepared to give them  the same opportunity to feed themselves -
i.e. include them in our mealtimes  and put food within their reach - they
would surely do it themselves from the word go, accuracy increasing with
practice.  If we were meant to feed our babies with spoons we'd surely have
evolved a spoon-shaped finger!"  I absoletely agree, yes it may be messy but
at the same time as they are learning to be with their parents at meal times
they are having the opportunity to explore and find an interesting thing in
their mouths when it is not just a thing but something with texture and taste.
A taste which is familiar because the mother has already introduced it to him
while breastfeeding!! Hmm how odd, he may think.

 "I think the idea of "feeding" babies (as opposed to letting them feed
 themselves) is a bottle feeding thing" , I also agree!  I have seen babies
who have been allowed the opportunity to feed themselves pick up a spoon and
fork later on all by themselves instead of continuing to let a parent feed
them!!  These children are a pleasure to watch as they learn all by themselves
the how tos of a spoon.

 Just my $.03 worth!

See ya,
Yvonne
*************************************
Yvonne C. Bannister, IBCLC
Private Practice/Baby's BestFeeding
"A mother holds her baby . . . who holds the breast and gets the best!"