15 month old waking for milk!!

[mummy2pickle]

Hello
I am hoping to start sleep training my 15 month old ds. He has never been a good sleeper always waking 2-5 times a night. Recently he has decided to wake 3 times overnight (9, 12 and 3) and the only thing that'll make him settle is a bottle. He even points to the side as if to ask for one. I know he does not need any milk during the night he eats well during the day and has a bottle before bed. I seriously cannot do any more months of broken sleep it's breaking me.
So I'm hoping to do a bit of sleep training. I've heard about replacing the bottle with warm water and soon he will give up waking for a bottle. Has anyone tried this and it has worked?? I'm aware it may take a few nights but DH has just heard me in with DS trying to settle without milk and given me a bottle of warm water and DS has gone back to bed so has now given me to mindset to start it.
We both work and have an older DD so want to do it over a weekend as she has school.
Any help is appreciated. Ie does it work? Do I cut out every feed to water? Tips etc

Do you think he wants milk or he just wakes for whatever reason and asks for milk as a consequence? My oldest DD used to wake up around this age but it was just once in a night and wouldn't settle. I used to sit with her and look at a certain book for 10 mins and she'd go back to sleep. I used to put it down to having a bad dream and the book would calm her down. She just stopped after a month or so.

My youngest never wakes but she's just a dream (I'm sure she'll be a nightmare teenager to make up for it)