Bottles, weaning, night feeds - what would you do?

[MsFrog]

DS is 6 months (27 weeks), bottle fed. He's never been great with the bottle, never taken big amounts very reliably. He wasn't putting on weight as expected (but was still on the 50th centile) so health visitor recommended weaning a bit early at just over 5 months.

He has 4 bottles a day (roughly 7.30, 11, 2/3 and 6.30). He also has two bottles a night, around 10 and 2/3, although these are moving a bit later (was 11 and 4 last night). He eats 3 meals, proper things like porridge, fruit, veg, chicken, homemade soup and bread, fish, mash, cheese, yoghurt etc. 3 meals a day, manages really well and loves it.

My problem is, day time bottles have reduced. Gone from about 5 or occasionally 6oz to 3/4oz. The morning bottle today was only 2oz 😬 But he took about 5oz at 11pm and nearly 7oz at 4am.

I feel like I'm getting something wrong... What would you do? Reduce solids? Reduce night time milk? Night wean? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Should add, he's piled the weight on since starting solids!

Maybe he doesn't like to drink so much milk in one go? Could you do a larger number of smaller feeds instead?

@NCSistineChapel thank you, do you mean instead of meals? Not sure when I'd fit anything else in at the moment, around 4 bottles, 3 meals, and 3-4 naps!

Does it matter when he's having the milk? If he's drinking a good amount overnight then I'd just let him carry on with that and just let him drink what he wants during the day.

A reduction in milk is absolutely normal when they start eating 3 full meals. 6 months is quite early to be doing so I think? It's usually a slower build up between 6 months and a year, because they still need the milk more then the food.

I'd start reducing the early morning feed by 1oz at a time. You dont want them taking more in the night than during the day.

Yes, DD didn't have three full meals a day until she was about 9 months I think. You could easily cut back his meals and give him a bottle for lunch instead of food for the next month or two if it's a concern. He doesn't need three full meals yet. But tbh as long as he was drinking a decent amount overnight and having a lot of cheese, yoghurt, etc. then I'm not sure I would get worked up about it.