12 month old still has 4 bottles a day

[ordinarybread]

So my son has a 8oz bottle of Aptamil 1 in the morning at 6:30am then his breakfast, childminder gives him 8oz of cows milk around 10am, another cows milk around 3pm 8oz again, and before bed he has another 8oz of Aptamil 1. HV advised to continue until he drops a feed and go from there. He eats all his food, no issues with feeding I just want to cut down on the formula as it's so expensive lol. I have tried lowering his feeds slowly, I got down to a 5oz bottle in the mornings and he started waking at 2am every night for a bottle, so it seems he really needs that much milk? Any advice?

I would replace the bottles one at a time with a cup of milk and a small snack instead. Start with one of the day time ones and then milk in a cup morning and evening.
This is what I did with my dc when I weaned them off formulae and bottles.

@MintTwirl Ah he doesn't know what to do with cups, we're working on that..

I'd be tempted to drop the first bottle and give him breakfast with a cup of milk. He will get used it it soon enough

I'm surprised at the HV's advice if I'm honest. The recommended amount at 12 months is 10 floz a day.

I would still do it. He will quickly get to grips with a cup, at the minute he doesn’t really need to bother because he is having so much milk from a bottle which requires no effort for him. The munchkin 360 cups are good.
if you do it one bottle at a time then you know he is still getting plenty of fluids while learning to use the cup.

I'd stop the 10am one and do lunch at 12 with water bottle at 3 but only 4 oz

And he really doesn't need a night bottle at 12 months, he should be getting his calories from food in the day

I think many have similar at this age (it's awesome that he's not having milk in the night - mine was at that age).

What will make it a lot cheaper is replacing it with normal cows milk.

I'm not sure if this is 'current' advice, but with my ff daughter I remember we started mixing cows milk in with the formula and gradually adjusted the ratios until she was drinking full cows milk.

4 bottles is still a lot though, I'd swap one for a snack and pick one where it's possible to do some good distraction/ a trip out etc. the before nap and before bed ones are the hardest ones to lose.