Night drinking - 12m

[Ofpalestsilver]

My son- 12m - has in the last 10 days developed a ravenous overnight hunger. He’d stopped drinking overnight as he was reaching 12m, though woke early and wanted a bottle, and we were down to four feeds a day of around 120-150ml each depending. However, he now wakes in the middle of the night absolutely screaming, which can sometimes only be settled or sated by milk, sometimes up to 300ml, maybe twice in the night.

He’s drinking lots during the day as well but he’s also eating a lot of solid food. He’s at nursery so getting three meals and two snacks, as well as more small meals/snacks from us when wakes and when he gets home.

Tbh it’s the night milk that “concerns” me most. It just seems super excessive. Has anyone else gone through this at this age? Growth spurt? Teething? Just a thing? Just would like to hear of others who’ve experienced similar.

We’re going through this now. He’s never been a huge drinker (5oz max, likely because CMPA formula tastes rubbish) and around 11 months had started sleeping through the night with no feeds until a week ago. He wakes between 3-5am practically screaming and only a bottle will calm him down. We know it’s hunger as when we try to get him back to sleep without he keeps waking every 30-45 minutes afterwards and wakes for the day crying and annoyed. Whereas if we feed at 3-4am he goes back to sleep and wakes up around 6-7am happy.
He doesn’t have any bottles during the day now and has transitioned to oat milk in a straw cup and eats well so I’m not bothered about one night bottle even though our health visitor said he doesn’t need night feeding. In my mind 12 hours is a long time to go without anything, not even a drink so I’m giving it to him until he’s ready.
He’s a super energetic little boy and NEVER keeps still (even in his sleep) so I think he just needs feeding a little more frequently.
we also introduced a small snack with his oat milk an hour before bedtime and that has really helped him get those long stretches at night.
what sort of time is he waking? If it’s early hours like us, could definitely be hungry/thirst. If earlier in the night I would suspect teeth.

A bit older than yours my eldest had a phase like that - you could hear his tummy rumbling from metres away. I just kept an emergency snack (banana or something) on my bedside table, he'd eat it and go back to sleep.

Only lasted a month or 2 then he was back to sleeping through, so I presumed a growth spurt.

My daughter went thru this I just did it then as she got bigger and more active and more tired, she just stopped waking up for it so it's just a phase
My son has never done this

It won't last forever

Okay thanks everyone. I just wanted to know I wasn’t alone cos it just came so unexpectedly!