Having a wobble about BLW

[TheBish]

Sorry for the long and boring post, just need a bit of reassurance.
DD2 (nearly 7 months) has from the begining of weaning (bang on 26 weeks) refused to open his mouth for purees. I stopped for a few days and tried again but will not open his mouth and if I managed to sneak a bit in, he tasted it, shuddered and it all came straight out again. So, I thought I would try baby-led weaning.
I completely agree with the idea of it but the impatient, controlling side of me is getting very frustrated with it. Especially as DD1 was like a little bird from day one and wolfed his food down and is now a great eater. We're a week in and he has tried most things but the majority of it ends up on the floor. He's almost 7 months and the most he's scoffed is a couple of carrot sticks, a few bits of green bean and broccoli and some pitta. At this stage, my other DS was on three meals.
My main concern is that he's a big lad (wears 12 to 18 month old clothes) and wakes in the night every 2/3 hours for a breastfeed. I was looking forward to getting him on 3 meals a day so I would know it wasn't hunger waking him so I could at least try controlled crying. At the minute when he wakes up he seems genuinely hungry. So I'm just worried that by doing BLW I'm not giving him the extra calories he needs (although I know at this stage the milk is the most important thing etc).
Also, my timings of meals never seem to work out right. He gets sleepy by 12pm so I give him lunch some days at 11am, others after 2pm when he wakes up. I try and eat something with him as encouragment although his lunchtime is too early/late for me.
When does it progress from a few nibbles of veg to eating a proper meal? I know I should just relax and chill out about it all and enjoy it but I wish he would have accepted purees in a way so I could at least know he's eating decent amounts.

I only have a sample size of 1, but I am doing BLW by choice and DD took to it depressingly slowly, too. She is now 9 mths and much improved, but it's really only been the last month that decent amounts have been going down. I never really stuck to set meal times either, but just got something together 3 times a day whenever she was in the right frame of mind.

I also had a big wobble around 7 mths and thought of trying purees, but am now glad I didn't as she's so dextrous with her hands and will eat virtually anything. I realise it's a different situation as I never wanted to use purees but, from what I've read, a lot of babies do start slowly with this technique and patience is the name of the game.

If he is almost 7 months you can give him anything at this point - not just veg & fruit. You can wade in with a proper meal now. One thing that might be worth a try is to feed him/both of you on your lap - since he's BF, he's used to eating on your lap - that might help encourage him a bit. Don't worry too much about timings - we're still the same now & DD is 18 months. She naps across lunchtime mostly! I just do what you are doing and have a bit of something with her even if it's just some fruit & a brew.

Would he take more milk feeds during the day? That might help up his calorie intake at least. Maybe yogurts, cheese etc too might encourage him to eat a bit more?

DD (7.5 months) is blw'd and took to it fantastically. Will quite happily accept yogurt off a spoon too. If your ds won't you could always try dipping toast/fruit wedges etc in it for him to suck off. DD loves that too.

I think an important thing to remember too is that you're only a week in. From my understanding, if he's managing to eat anything by himself after only one week he's doing really well! Hopefully he'll be scoffing meals in no time.