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