I think at this stage I just gave x a banana and let him get on with it!
I'm pretty sure that I didn't use any kind of milk in cooking for a long time - I gave him foods that were dairy-free, and didn't fuss too much about giving yoghurts etc (don't think that coconut yoghurts were available when he was that age). If the girls were having yoghurts he would generally have a fruit pot or a pouch, which we continued until he was about 2, if I remember rightly.
Don't really know about gluten-free, as that was never a problem for x, but I would have thought that it would be okay.
If you are worried then you could try making your own gluten-free bread, or just stick to rice cakes - there are plenty of brands that have no flavour/salt and you could let him munch on them when he would be eating toast.
I have to say, while I didn't have any particular trouble with solids with the girls, x was about the easiest because I stopped worrying about him having 'enough' to eat and generally just put a few bits of fruit or veg in front of him and let him get on with it (I had other things to deal with!) and I think that that was why it was easy - I wasn't stressing about it at all, and as far as he was concerned it was just another thing to play with until he was really interested, so it worked quite well. I hope that T is kind enough to let you have an easy ride this time.