Weaning a milk monster off bottled

[Berangere]

Hi all, DS is 11 months old and off to nursery soon. He’s a complete milk monster and still has 4 x 180ml bottles a day which he mostly finishes (first thing on waking, after nap 1, after nap 2 and before bed, often 210ml for this one!).

He is a bit up and down with what he eats (largely been due to teething recently) but will happily eat breakfast (toast with on and a yogurt or some banana), lunch (sandwich or toastie with fruit, small yogurt and veggie crisp things) and dinner (often pasta and sauce, lasagne, wrap and chilli etc with raspberries or mango). He doesn’t eat LOADS (but I don’t know if I expect too much!) and I’m super aware he needs to come off so much milk soon as he turns one. I can’t be dealing with the faff of bottles at nursery or at home.

Any advice on how to consolidate bottles? Or prioritise food to remove the need for formula?

Friends say he will do it naturally but I think he’ll be on bottles at 3 if I don’t start making some changes.

I reduced frequency of milk, but even at 20 months haven't managed to get my DD off it. At age 1 she went to nursery and after a couple of months there we had stopped middle of the day bottles. She still has 150ml in the morning and 250ml before bed. She happily drinks lots of water in between and has full, balanced meals (she actually eats a ginormous amount) but will always ask for her milk. I think I'll try and remove the morning bottle next, but will keep the night time one because I think she gets a lot of comfort from it.

I'd drop the one after the first nap and give a snack and a drink instead, after a couple of weeks I'd do the same with the one after the afternoon nap, just to give them a little time to get used to not having that milk.