An 11-month-old typically needs about 24 ounces (720 mL) of formula per day, spread across three to four bottles. That amount provides roughly 400 to 500 of the 750 to 900 total calories your baby needs daily, with the rest coming from solid foods. Every baby is different, though, so this number is a target range rather than a strict rule.
Daily Formula Volume and Feeding Schedule
At 11 months, formula is still the main source of nutrition, but it’s sharing the stage with solid foods in a way it wasn’t a few months ago. Most babies this age eat or drink five to six times over 24 hours, which usually breaks down to about three meals of solid food, two to three snacks, and three to four bottles of formula throughout the day.
A common pattern looks something like this: a 6- to 8-ounce bottle in the morning, another in the afternoon, and one before bed, with solid meals and snacks in between. Some babies prefer four smaller bottles of 5 to 6 ounces instead. Either approach works as long as the total lands in the neighborhood of 24 ounces. Going well above 32 ounces a day is generally a sign that formula is crowding out solid foods your baby needs for development.
Balancing Formula With Solid Foods
The balance between formula and solids shifts gradually between 6 and 12 months. At 11 months, your baby is close to the tipping point where solid food starts becoming the primary calorie source. Right now, formula should still account for a little more than half of daily calories, but your baby’s solid food intake should be substantial: three meals a day with a couple of snacks.
A practical way to manage this balance is to offer formula at predictable times (morning, mid-afternoon, bedtime) and solid foods at family mealtimes. If you notice your baby refusing solids or seeming uninterested at meals, it may help to offer the bottle after the meal rather than before, so hunger drives them toward food first. On the flip side, if your baby is eating large amounts of solids and leaving formula behind, that’s a normal part of the transition. Let your baby guide the pace.
Reading Your Baby’s Hunger and Fullness Cues
At 11 months, babies are pretty good at communicating when they’ve had enough. Pushing food or a bottle away, turning their head, closing their mouth, or using hand motions and sounds to signal “done” are all reliable fullness cues. Your baby does not need to finish every bottle or clean every plate. Forcing the last ounce can teach them to override their own appetite signals, which isn’t helpful long-term.
If your baby consistently drinks less than 16 ounces of formula a day and isn’t making up the difference with solid foods, or if they seem lethargic or aren’t gaining weight, that’s worth mentioning to your pediatrician. But normal day-to-day variation is expected. Some days your baby will drain every bottle; other days they’ll barely touch one.
Night Feedings at 11 Months
Formula-fed babies over 6 months old are unlikely to wake at night because of genuine hunger. Formula digests more slowly than breast milk, and by 11 months your baby is getting plenty of calories during the day. If your baby still takes a nighttime bottle, it’s typically more of a comfort habit than a nutritional need.
If you want to phase out night feeds, you can gradually reduce the volume over about a week. Drop the amount by about an ounce every two nights. So if your baby usually drinks 6 ounces at night, offer 5 ounces for two nights, then 4, and so on. Once you’re down to 2 ounces or less, you can stop offering the bottle altogether. That said, if nighttime feeding isn’t bothering you, there’s no urgent reason to stop.
Water and Other Drinks
Between 6 and 12 months, babies can have 4 to 8 ounces of plain water per day. Water is fine with meals or on hot days, but it shouldn’t replace formula. At this age, juice, cow’s milk, and other beverages aren’t recommended as regular drinks. Formula and water are the only liquids your baby needs right now.
Getting Ready for the Switch to Milk
Your baby is just a month away from the typical milestone of transitioning to whole cow’s milk. You don’t need to make any changes yet, but there’s one small step you can take: after your baby turns 11 months, you can try offering about an ounce of whole milk in a sippy cup once a day. This isn’t a replacement for formula. It’s just a way to let your baby get used to the taste and practice with a cup before the full switch at 12 months.
If your baby doesn’t love the taste, you can mix equal parts whole milk and prepared formula, then gradually shift the ratio toward more milk over a couple of weeks. Once your child is fully on cow’s milk after their first birthday, the total volume of milk they drink will naturally drop compared to their formula days. That’s normal and expected, because by then, the majority of their calories will come from solid food rather than from a bottle.