1 year old, too much milk..

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Does anyone have any advise on cutting down my daughters bottles? Shes 1 next week and still on 6 bottles, she has her 3 meals a day plus snacks, 1 bottle on a morning, 1 dinner time, and 3-4 at bedtime, i know she doesnt need them but its her comfort, doesnt use a dummy and never has, just not intrested, isnt attached to a blanket or anything, its the only thing that soothes her, any ideas would be appreciated :)

Having 1 at breakfast and 1 at teatime is normal, although you are advised to switch a cup by 15 months. Does she have a feed to sleep association to have 3-4 at bedtime? You can replace that with something special. We gave DS a muslin to hold while he drank his bottle, now he sucks that instead while he goes to sleep. Otherwise, you can work on weaning her down 1 bottle at a time. How much formula is she getting in total?

Hi, if its the 5 bottles its 40 ounces, she has 8 ounce bottles, all though today i have been giving her yogurt drink in a sippy bottle and she seems to like this, may try this at bed time or water after her first bottle and see how we go, just so hard.. i know what im meant to do and what she should be having as shes my 4th but with it being her soother its hard to take it away from her xx

So 3-4 bottles before she goes to sleep?! That's a lot!! If it's the sucking she needs could you try and get her on to a dummy or as the above poster has said, a different slrep association like a muslin? My 12 month old has a bunny he cuddles to sleep.

Does she have enough dinner/ have a late enough dinner time if she has that much milk afterwards? Is her weight and height okay?

My son is still on 3 bottles a day which HV says is too much for his age really but says that it's okay for now as he's eating plenty of solids (has seconds most days at nursery) and his height is 98th percentile compared with weight 91st percentile.

Is she overweight? If not I would be tempted to leave it until she’s 18-24 months.

Are the bedtime bottles before she goes to sleep, or throughout the night?
If at bedtime, that’s up to 32oz of milk in one go? I’m surprised she doesn’t throw it up! Does she eat much at her evening meal?
My 10 month old has one in the morning, one in the afternoon, one at bedtime and usually one in the night, all 6oz bottles. He doesn’t have a dummy or any other comforter either. We’re currently working on dropping the one in the night. He eats really well and has never taken more than 6oz in one feed.

Hi, thanks for the replys, shes quite tall, takes after her dad their hes 6'4, she has 3 meals per day, plus 2 lots of snacks, she has tea after the older ones get in about 4-30 - 5pm and has 2 yogurts after as dessert, eats alot of fruit, veg, cheese, yogurts ect and meals are usualy whatever the rest of us are having, i know shes not hungry its pure comfort, and she has them throughout the nite not all at once lol, iv tried dummys.. even the tommee tippee breast like soothers and she wont entertain them, think i might have to just bite the bullet and bin the bottles so theirs no temptation lol

Following as we’re in a similar situation but with cmpa so prescription formula which I expect to stop being given soon. Dd does have a dummy but really wants milk and will scream and scream until she gets milk

@Eeeek2 its hard isnt it, i feel like im taking her comfort away, but i supose its a "cruel to be kind" kinda deal, have to let me know how you get on too! :)

Can you tackle the sleep association first? So she gets a bottle at night when she's about to go down but has this whilst she's sat up and having a book read to her but once it's finished she lies down and goes to sleep (easier said than done and obviously won't go that smoothly ) but I think cold turkey might be a bit much for her to handle if it's her comfort and she doesn't know any different.

Imagine someone was to take your pillow and duvet away from you randomly one night - you can't understand why and you really want it back but you're being told to sleep without it. You'd really struggle.

Is there a bottle or 2 during the day that would be easier to drop? Could she be easily distracted with a snack or similar. What about her morning bottle? Can't you just give breakfast with water straight away instead of a bottle? It's a really tricky one , wishing you luck

Google ‘baby bottle mouth’.
If she is having 4 8oz bottles of milk during the night her teeth may end up being totally decayed.
I think you’ll have to go cold turkey.
And giving her yoghurt in a sippy cup is probably not a good idea either

@anotherquirkyusername thanks for the idea! She does love her books so this is a good one actually, deffinitly worth a try! :)

We ditched bottles completely with DD2 at 11 months after having a struggle to stop them with DD1 at 18 months. Far easier to do it when they’re younger, the attachment only gets stronger as they get older (and more vocal!). We’ll be getting rid of them at 12 months with DS too.

I'm going to go against the grain here. But if the bottles are her comfort at night time, I would be ditching the bottles in the day time first.

Have you switched to cow's milk instead of formula yet? Both of mine naturally cut down how much they had when I made that switch. They also stopped their bedtime milk completely when I gave it to them in a cup rather than a baby bottle. Do you also still cuddle/feed her with the bottle or does she do that herself? That's another way to cut the comfort association, she feeds herself.

I'd stop offering bottles in the day, give give her solid meals and drinks with a meal or snack in a cup. No bottles in the day. That at least cuts down how much she's having without removing her comfort at night.

Then you can work on ditching the bottles at night, by switching to a cup at night when she's a little bit older.

How does she go to bed? If she’s falling asleep on the bottle then every time she stirs in the night she’ll want another one.

I’d get her bedtime routine sorted so her bottle is downstairs, then she goes up and gets ready for bed, has a story, then bed. That way her bottle is far enough away from sleep that the association will go.

Then I’d just cut the bottles out overnight a few days later

Hi 👋 no shes not on cows milk yet, iv been putting it on her cereal to make sure shes ok with it and shes been fine so that might be worth a try actually see if she cuts down herself, good possiblity actually considering its not half as sweet as baby milk and that could be another reason, i dont give her cakes, choc ect so her bottle, yogurts and fruit are the sweetest things she has, shes old enough to change to cows milk now so i will start that today :)

Yeah she goes to bed with a bottle, extremely bad mistake we made i think letting her when she started holding it herself a couple month ago, gets her teeth brushed morning and night but at nite its pretty much defeating the object, think its needs to be cows milk, brush teeth, story then bed from now on and if she wants her bottle so bad it can be water, hopefully she will realise waters not worth the effort 😊

Just want to say thanks for the advise ladies, i do have 3 older children but iv not had this problem, my girls wer dummy babies and my boy was a blanky baby so this is pretty new to me and felt a bit lost lol :) x

That sounds like a good routine you've got planned. Good luck!

Thankyou! :) feel like im going to need it 🤣 but itll be worth it 😊 x

I'm in exactly the same situation so following for help!

If she’s just having the milk in the night for comfort can you cut down the amount she’s having in the bottle each time before getting rid of them completely? Mine has one bottle a night, currently at 5oz. Planning to drop it to 4oz soon.

Quick update for people in similar situations.. yesterday i tried her with cows milk through the day to make sure she wouldnt have a bad tummy ect, she was fine, she didnt neck it like she does her baby milk but still drank it, last nite she had cows milk for bed.. 1 BOTTLE ALL NIGHT! I litrally cant belive the diffrence, i never thaught for a second that switching milk would do the trick so easily, i thaught we was in for alot of screaming for at least a few nights.. not a single tear! Fingers crossed this keeps up and its not a fluke, but just for people in the same predicament.. your baba might suprise you once their at the age to switch :) goodluck mamas and dadas :) xx