How do I get him to drop a night feed??

[mooglycrunch]

Not sure if this belongs in Feeding or Sleep as I am sure they are both related.
DS 2 is 7 months, he has been bottle fed since 3 months has started weaning early due to reflux and is a BIG boy (approx 11kg).

He gets put to bed 7-ish after about 8 / 9 oz of milk.

Wakes at 11:30, 2:30, 4:30 up for the day at 6.
He never finishes a full feed at night taking only about 5/6 oz, I'm sure if he took more he would drop at least one feed and sleep through longer.

He naps at about 10am (anything from 20mins to 1hour on average) then cat naps during the day as we are normally out and about with DS1 who is 2.9 yrs.

He takes fruit or veg purees well but baby led weaning hasn't really worked great as he tends to nip bigger pieces of with his only two teeth and suck them to the back of his throat then gag and throw-up - which is frankly terrifying.

I've convinced myself he will sleep more when he is eating solids but in the meantime I'm melting with exhaustion.

Can anyone give ideas that may help him drop just one feed at night?

I'd say he needs more high calorie foods. Fruit and veg will have no where near as many calories as milk. We did BLW so no experience in traditional weaning but my friends were giving their babies mashed up versions of proper meals - some protein and carb should help fill him up a bit more than just veg will.

Our DS actually slept less once we started weaning and woke up more frequently in the night for milk. But it was clear to us, it was a comfort thing as he would fall asleep whilst drinking it and rarely finish the whole beaker.

I think it was over a year when we done this as DS was swapped onto cows milk rather than formula...

But what we done was slowly start diluting his night feeds and then once he was on basically white water we have him less and less until he was only waking up to drink 1oz of water. He then only woke up if he was actually thirsty whixh wasn't often.

But at 21 months he does still wake up for the day at 5am (frequently 4am).

I have four dc and have found each one is very different when it came to weaning. Two were like seals I literally threw them anything and they chomped on it.
One much preferred puréed/ being spoon fed food and the last one was frankly broken
With the one who prefers purées (sounds most similar to yours) I started with puréed veg then quickly moved on to adding a bit of cod or chicken to their veg. So for example chicken casserole made with what ever their favourite veg is and some salt free stock. Cod and sweet potato cooked in milk then blended was a good one. What I found key was soon as they got used to the texture start to make it thicker ie mash with a fork try to mix it up as much as possible to avoid them only eating very blended food.
Also if they aren't keen on feeding themselves give them nice finger foods,some kids will be happy chewing on broccoli if their not too keen start them off with nice things like roasted sweet potatoes, mango fingers. If your worried about choking those nets on a stick you can put food in and the can chew through the net are really good and fab for teething too I used to put frozen fruit in to help with sore gums.

Once he starts eating three meals I would start to reduce down the amount of milk powder you put in his feeds and he should hopefully start to drop them.