Bottle/Milk obsessed 18m

[Newperson4]

My son is 18m and is still having 3x 7oz bottles in 24h. One of which is before bed, one in the middle of the night and one in the day before his nap. We need to cut out that middle of the night one but I feel it is the bottle/sucking that he finds comfort in rather than needing the milk due to hunger. He eats OK but I feel the milk impacts his interest in food.

Can I get some recommendations for a sippy cup to try him on? It needs to not leak as he will have it in his cot to begin with and he tends to chuck things / bash things on tables and walls.

Also, would you just go cold turkey and take the bottles away, or slowly move him to a sippy cup?

Why don't you try reducing the amount of milk in each bottle first? There's no need to go cold Turkey when it's a comfort to him, and a breastfed child still feeding 3 x a day at 18 months is fairly normal in my circle. Reduce the amount of milk in each bottle over a period of weeks. When it's down to 1oz in each bottle then replace with one of those 360 cups that don't leak. Then remove the whole concept of milk before bed entirely. 18 months is still quite little, no need to be in any rush.

Thanks @wibblewobbleball we have tried this and he goes mad and will not settle with less at all! weve also tried diluting it with water and the same thing happens. I feel like if we use a cup itll take the comfort aspect away and perhaps he’ll realise its not worth waking for in the night. I am not a fan of the 360 cup, it leaks so much when chucked.

Was in this boat a few months ago, just to say it got better on it's own really as mine started sleeping longer stretches without & by 2 & we've cut it right down. Wouldn't do anything drastic if otherwise sleeping well.
Are you lifting them out to feed? It could be the cuddles that are required to resettle so if there's no comforter introduce one. My DC has really taken to cuddling her teddy in bed in the last few months and it seems to reassure her. All a phase..don't stress.

@SBR1 ahhh not sleeping well is the issue, lots of crying and wanting more milk. We stick to one in the night and if he is crying wanting more we go in and shhh and give his head a rub and say “bedtime” but we have had to give in and allow more milk on occasion. We don’t lift him out anymore, we hand him the milk and he will lay down and drink it and then discard the bottle. He has got two small muslin comforters but maybe i’ll try a bigger teddy.

If the nights are a problem you could try some gentle night weaning? This method is aimed at BFers but should be easily adaptable

My oldest DC was like this. An absolute milk monster and the only thing that would get him back to sleep if he woke at night was a bottle.

We went cold turkey with all bottles when he was 2 years old (he was already using a cup in the daytime but still having a bottle before bed and in the middle of the night). Had 2 nights of screaming and then he started sleeping through and pretty much forgot about bottles.

Just to add, at 2 he was able to understand it was going to happen, so we chucked away the bottles with him and said we are going to only have big boy cups now and no baby bottles etc.