Giving up bottles

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Hi,
First post and hope you dont mind a stay at home dad gatecrashing the site!
Our ds is 16 month and has started taking a 7oz bottle at bedtime and then 2 (or 3) 5 oz bottles during the night. He goes through the day without any bottles apart from morning and bedtime and eats 3 meals plus snacks. All started when he had bad throat infection and didn't eat for a week.
Used to sleep through 9 out of 10 nights - now lucky if it's 1 in 10.
Do reckon cold turkey is best and just re-assure with no bottle or should we just keep giving bottles and wait till he's older and can understand that bottles are for babies?
thanks

Hiya - welcome to MN! There are a few dads who post, so don't feel too outnumbered

Can you try giving him water? Or reducing the amount in the bottles in the night? Or watering them down gradually till it's just water?

How does he eat during the day? Does the milk he's having in the night affect his appetite?

Refuses water but maybe we could try watering the milk down - dont they just end wanting more bottles to make up the calories.
He eats 3 good meals a day with a healthy appetite and has morning and afternoon snack as well.
Dont mind getting up but worried that he is sucking on a bottle for too long and may damage teeth, speech development etc.

i think he will have his milk in the day if he isn't getting it at night,.
if he was previously sleeping through fine then i certainly don't think he "needs" it in the night... definitely not 3 times!
i would try going cold turkey and settling him back down to sleep without it.
if that fails then do as hunker suggests and just reduce the amount you give him....

Would definitely not wait until he is old enough to understand. Its not good for him sleep-wise as well as you. I would either go cold turkey or try and phase out gradually. Maybe try and up the 7 oz at night if he'll take it to ensure he goes to sleep with a full tummy.

My DD is 17 months and has recently stopped her bedtime cup of milk. She was just messing with it. Generally has some in a morning though.