Starting solid foods!

When did you start solids for your baby? a little background: My son will be 4 months next week and he is about 19 pounds( Big boy I know but he was 9 pounds when born and doctor says he’s healthy and growing fine) he drinks about 5oz of formula every 3-3.5 hours. Some days he’ll skip a bottle thru the day due to napping late or taking a long nap from not napping at all in the morning, (3-4 hrs). He is obviously fed once he wakes up. But most days he’s only getting about 25 oz of formula due to sleeping thru the night and not waking for a bottle. He wakes thru the night occasionally but not all the time. I am not worried about his formula intake since he is growing well and has a lot of wet diapers.

But He has been showing a lot of interest in food, he stares at us while we eat opens his mouth and grabs our plates if we are holding him while we eat at the dinner table. I started to introduce rice cereal mixed with his formula in a bowl on Sunday just to introduce him to spoon-feeding. I did not want to mix it in the bottle. It took him about 2 days to get the hang of it and he really loves it! Did anyone start food at 4 months? I think my boy is ready. But I read online so much about introducing foods to early can be bad? Just want some info on what other moms/dads did or are recently doing! Thank you :)