A 10-month-old typically needs 24 to 32 ounces of breast milk or formula per day, split across three to five feedings. This remains their primary source of nutrition, even as solid foods play an increasingly important role in their diet. The exact amount varies by baby, depending on how much solid food they’re eating, their size, and their appetite on any given day.
Daily Breast Milk and Formula Totals
Between 6 and 12 months, breast milk or formula is still the nutritional foundation. At 10 months, most formula-fed babies drink somewhere between 24 and 32 ounces per day, and 32 ounces is the recommended upper limit. Going above that consistently can displace solid food intake and contribute to patterns of overfeeding that sometimes lead to excess weight gain even in infancy.
For breastfed babies, measuring exact ounces is harder since you can’t see how much they’re taking at the breast. A rough guide is three to five nursing sessions per day, each lasting around 10 to 20 minutes. If your baby is gaining weight steadily and producing plenty of wet diapers, they’re almost certainly getting enough.
Babies at this age who eat a wider variety of solids often naturally reduce how much milk they drink. A baby who enthusiastically eats oatmeal, soft fruits, and small pieces of chicken at meals might only want 24 ounces of formula, while a pickier eater may still be closer to 30 or more. Both are normal.
Balancing Milk With Solid Foods
At 10 months, your baby is in a transition zone. Breast milk or formula is still their main calorie source, but solids are gradually taking up a larger share. Most babies this age eat three small meals of solid food per day, plus one or two snacks, alongside their milk feedings.
A common pitfall is offering a full bottle right before a meal, which fills your baby up and leaves them uninterested in food. If you’re finding that your baby refuses solids consistently, try offering the bottle after the meal or spacing it at least 30 minutes before. The goal over the next couple of months is for solids to become the primary source of nutrition by age one, so letting your baby practice eating a variety of foods now helps that transition go smoothly.
Water and Other Drinks
Your 10-month-old can have 4 to 8 ounces of plain water per day. Small sips from an open cup or straw cup during meals are ideal. Water at this age isn’t about hydration (breast milk and formula handle that) but about letting your baby practice drinking and get used to the taste of plain water.
Several drinks are off-limits at this age:
- Fruit or vegetable juice: Not recommended before 12 months.
- Cow’s milk: Should not replace breast milk or formula until 12 months. Before then, cow’s milk can cause intestinal bleeding and contains too much protein and too many minerals for a baby’s kidneys. It also lacks key nutrients that breast milk and formula provide.
- Sugar-sweetened drinks: No soda, flavored milk, sports drinks, or sweetened water before age 2.
- Caffeinated drinks: No safe level of caffeine has been established for young children.
- Unpasteurized beverages: Raw milk and unpasteurized juice carry serious infection risks.
Night Feedings at 10 Months
Most 10-month-olds don’t need to eat overnight to meet their nutritional needs. By this age, babies can typically get all the calories they require during the day. Formula-fed babies at 10 to 12 months generally need zero to one nighttime feeding, while breastfed babies may still have zero to two.
If your baby is still waking frequently to eat at night, it often creates a cycle: nighttime calories reduce daytime appetite, which means they eat less during the day, which means they’re hungrier at night. Breaking that cycle usually involves gradually shifting more calories into daytime feedings and meals. Your baby may genuinely feel hungry overnight, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn to sleep through without a feeding once their daytime intake is adjusted.
Signs Your Baby Is Getting Enough
Rather than fixating on a specific ounce count, look at the bigger picture. A 10-month-old who is getting enough to drink will have at least four to six wet diapers a day, show steady weight gain at pediatric checkups, seem alert and active during wake times, and show interest in food and feeding. Babies naturally vary their intake from day to day. A teething day or a day recovering from a cold might mean less milk than usual, and that’s perfectly fine as long as the overall trend stays on track.