Is it bad to skip rice cereal and go straight to Stage 1 baby foods?

My baby is going on 5 months now and my pediatrician told me to start feeding him baby rice cereal mixed with water or formula but every time I tried feeding him that he would spit it right out. I tried a week later and the same thing happened. Then I tried giving him some gerber sweet potato stage 1 foods and he loved it. He ate half of a whole jar of it. I just want to know if its bad for my baby to skip rice cereal altogether and go straight to stage 1 baby foods?