I'm sorry you've had that unhelpful advice from your doctor. it's hard to know what to do when everyone else's babies that age seem to be enjoying solids too. My DD1 flat out refused solids until she was 11 mth old. In contrast to your experience, I had a great maternal nurse who was very supportive, especially as she was a breastfed baby too, and just encouraged me to keep offering food and said she'll take it when she's ready. My nurse said that it was important she was taking some solids at the age of 12 mths not for the nutritional aspect (because breastmilk would meet those needs) but because of the muscles involved in chewing are linked to speech development. That's something i hadn't heard before.

This didn't stop me being totally stressed out about the lack of solids intake but another thing that really did help was I gained a lot of information and support from a book titled 'My child won't eat' written by Carlos Gonzalez. He's a Spanish paediatrician. Worth it's weight in gold for me as it's full of information and encourages you to trust your child and your own instincts. I would recommend a read if you can get a copy.

Good luck and i'm sure you'll find the mess involved with eating will increase soon!!