Nearly 12 months and still needing two night bottles, reduce or wait?

[Summersun91]

Baby is nearly 12 months old and still drinks 2 bottles every night. I’m wondering if I can reduce this to 1. I was hoping it would happen naturally but no sign of that yet. Any suggestions of how to do this please? Or should I leave it until she drops naturally?

She’s been on 2 bottles a night since she was 8 months. Before this she woke up 6-10 times a night since she was 4 months old, and I breastfed at night. One night at 4.30am after feeding her 4 times and she was still crying out of desperation I made a bottle and she downed it and went straight down in the cot and slept for 3 hours. She has completely downed the 2 bottles every single night so she’s clearly hungry, and afterwards she goes straight back to sleep in her cot. So I’m up for maybe 10/15mins, so a big improvement on before.

She has 3 other bottles during the day (10-15oz total) along with the 2x 5oz bottles at night. She doesn’t usually eat much for breakfast but eats a reasonable amount for lunch and tea.

This is a typical schedule:
Wake: 6.30
Breakfast: 7.30
Bottle 1: 9.00
Nap 1: 9.30-10.30
Lunch: 12.00
Bottle 2: 1.30
Nap 2: 2.00-3.00
Tea: 5.00
Bottle 3: 6.30
Bedtime: 7.00
Night bottle 1: 10.30-11.30
Night bottle 2: 2.30-4.30

On the odd occasion she wakes earlier than the usual times for bottles at night I shush/pat her to sleep, and she usually wakes up max 30 mins later so I give the bottle then. Does this mean I’ll have no chance in stopping them/one?

Just to add her daytime naps and daytime food/milk intake have zero impact on the night time bottles. I’ve tried cutting naps and increasing the wake time before bed, and on days when she eats/drinks a lot she’ll still wake the same times at night. Also I know 11.5 hours is a lot of sleep at night but she seems to need it, have tried waking her earlier as well.

Should I try and get her back to sleep again without a drink, or should I offer water? Or should I just not bother trying given that she seems hungry and goes back down easily, and wait for her to do it herself? Thoughts welcomed!

I would maybe cut out the 6:30 bottle, move bedtime back a bit later and have a bedtime bottle about 8-8:30? That might cut out the first wake up

I'd up the amount of ml through the day if she's having 10-5oz then she's only having 5-7oz per feed? So offer 8oz, 4 times a day.

Wake: 6.30 - Bottle straightaway. Potentially a sleepy one if you have a slow morning.
Breakfast: 7.30
Bottle 1: 9.00
Nap 1: 9.30-10.30
Lunch: 12.00
Bottle 2: 1.30
Nap 2: 2.00-3.00
Tea: 5.00
Bottle 3: 6.30 - Move this one to right before bedtime. Literally one of the last things you do (bar teeth brushing).
Bedtime: 7.00
Night bottle 1: 10.30-11.30
Night bottle 2: 2.30-4.30

Then try and get her back to sleep with a bit of water/comfort for the 1st wake. Offer milk at the 2nd wake.

Edited to add: though by 12 months, both my DDs have been on 2 bottles a day. One at breakfast and one before bed, so actually you might want to just withdraw some of the daytime milk altogether in the hope that appetite for food increases.

Thanks for your reply, these suggestions make sense, but unfortunately I can’t get her to drink more milk during the day. When she was on 5 bottles a day she would drink 2-3oz per bottle, when I dropped to 4 bottles she’d drink 3-4oz per bottle, and now on 3 bottles she’ll drink 4-5oz per bottle. I offer her 6oz per bottle during the day. I dropped the wake up bottle as she wouldn’t even drink 1oz.

The bedtime bottle sorry is just before bed, I give it to her at 6.30, put her down then she’s asleep by around 7.

As you say as well now that she’s nearly 1 I should be reducing bottles, so not really sure where to start! My eldest was also only on a morning and night time bottle by age 1!

I think you’d have to go cold Turkey and accept the crying. She’s having a lot of milk for that age? I’d be cutting down the milk and offering in a cup instead. Get her eating more food

Her bottles seem really close to her meals and odd spacing so it's probably why she's not taking much as shes hungry.

Neither mine woke for milk during the night at 9 months and both had the same routine which was.

Bottle - 7am
Breakfast- 8ish
Nap 1 - 10-2
Bottle 2 - 11am
Lunch 12.30-1
Nap 2 - 2-3
Bottle 3 - 3pm and a snack too
Tea - usually around 5.30-6
Bedtime Bottle- 7pm

All bottles were 8oz too. I think if you space them out more evenly and before food, she might take more.

12m old should be having 12-16oz milk a day
I would definitely be looking at dropping the night feeds and the lunchtime one soon after. Baby won't eat much solid food as full up on milk! I used to say I will give milk after 12am so if baby woke at 10 I would give a cuddle, water and back to bed. Then gradually pushed back then stopped offering it. You are going to get crying for a couple of nights

She’s only having 10/15 a day including bedtime bottle so means around 5 oz bottles

I would expect 8oz a bottle minimum at that age tho most have dropped daytime bottles at that age but have wake up and bed time milk in a beaker

so wake and a bottle or beaker of milk as at 1 I advise /stop bottles

you could offer water at 2nd bottle or dilute water and milk (cows not formula) so when wakes in morning is actually hungry and wanting wake up milk

what foods /meals is she eating and move tea to 430 so when have milk 630/7 she drinks more

That’s an awful lot of milk for her age and she’s not eating very much if breakfast is hit or miss and you aren’t offering any snacks. She needs more food and less milk to not wake hungry. NHS advice is 3 meals, 2 snacks and 350-400ml of cows milk OR 2-3 servings of dairy so milk on cereal, cheese sandwich and a yoghurt would more than cover her needs. She doesn’t need to be drinking it at all really and she should be stopping bottles for her teeth- overnight bottles are particularly bad for tooth decay unfortunately.

I’d stop the daytime bottles and offer her yummy high calorie snacks instead e.g. full fat greek yoghurt and a banana. I’d also make dinner later or give her a second supper right before bath of something like weetabix.

If you are going to struggle to go totally cold turkey on the night feeds because you’re stuck in this vicious of cycle of not eating enough and then needing the milk so not being hungry enough to eat enough, I’d maybe offer one bottle overnight for a week, only after midnight and then after that you stop completely.

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions, much appreciated.
I hadn’t realised I’d been stuck in a cycle of trying to get her to drink more milk during the day in an attempt to reduce the night milk (which didn’t work at all), and then forgot by now I should be reducing bottles. I’ve cut one of the day time bottles so she now has one late morning and one before bed. I offer her 6oz but she still won’t drink more than 5oz, and usually only 4oz.

A few nights I’ve tried to settle at the first wake (usually 10.30ish) without feeding. Twice she’s woken again after 30ish mins so I’ve fed her then. A few times she’s slept for a few more hours so the first bottle has been at 1/2am. But she’ll only sleep 3 hours after this time before waking again, which leaves me with a 5am wake which is harder to get her back to sleep so I’ve still given a second bottle (after which she goes straight back to sleep). I know I’m taking the easy option here so when I have the strength I’ll need to try and stop it.

I still need to try offering water.

I forgot to add that adjusting the bedtime and evening meal time is a bit tricky because I also have a toddler on the same schedule.

Thsnks for the reminders/suggestions for snacks as well, I need to start introducing these instead of bottles. Something I had forgotten as I rarely gave my eldest snacks as it was very difficult to get her to eat meals.

Food wise I offer her porridge for breakfast with something in it, and usually fruit or rice cake (usually won’t eat either). (Have tried other breakfasts too but no better so I stick with porridge as it’s quick and easy in case she does want to eat something).
Lunch is something like a pinwheel, eggs on toast, orzo, soup, wrap. She is getting better at eating this, I think she finds finger foods difficult so naturally eats less because it’s harder, she’ll eat more if it’s something I can feed her.
Evening meal is same as what I eat and she eats plenty.

Thanks again for all those who have taken the time to reply.

How old is your toddler though. Mine was 3 when my 2nd was born so wasn't napping but even I found past 18 months/2, they didn't really need to be on a schedule so surely they can be flexible to fit round the baby?

This, NHS recommends giving bottles up at 12 months

I think switching away from bottles will help you as well. I like the munchkin 360 cups as less likely to spill. If they are still called that.

I think it will be a case of a few weeks being difficult to see any change. All the best and good luck.

next door has raised four kids and swears by water only overnight to stop them waking up, as they soon learn theres no point in waking as no milk will be forthcoming so sleep through.

I would leave things as they are for now and see how she is at 18 months. She may drop one or both night bottles naturally. She’s still very little.

Thanks, that’s why I haven’t done anything yet, I understand the NHS recommends not trying to night wean under 12months unless they do it by themselves. I am also wondering whether just to leave it. I think if it were 1 bottle a night I would, but 2 is just a bit too disruptive (I had hoped she might have reduced to 1 naturally), so trying to decide how long to leave it