Katy, I've vented in a very similar way about 'professionals' attitude towards BLW, but I think my rant was MUCH longer. It's infuriating isn't it that some people equate it with neglect and poor parenting.
There's no N for 'neglect' in BLW and who's to say that traditional route parents aren't neglectful?
Lets take a poll of all the children who have been removed from their neglectful or abusive parents and see how many were traditional weaned and how many baby led weaned - yeah sounds OTT I know but SERIOUSLY how can people think we would just leave our babies to choke?
Quite recently in the UK a nurse caused the death of her own baby due to force feeding purée (the baby got pneumonia due to food in the lungs and couldn't be saved). She was obsessed with the baby's weight, I think the news reports said she had been previously warned not to force feed the baby in this way but continued to do so because that was how her own mother had weaned her children. Does this mean that all parents who wean with purées are going to kill their babies? No of course not, it means that some parents are STUPID, neglectful and abusive, it has nothing to do with the purée or the finger food.
Now I shall go and take some deep breaths