A 9-month-old typically needs 24 to 32 ounces of breast milk or formula per day, spread across 4 to 6 feeding sessions. That total drops slightly from earlier months because solid foods are now filling in a growing share of your baby’s calories. But milk remains the primary source of nutrition through the entire first year.
How Much Milk Per Feeding
At 9 months, most babies drink 6 to 7 ounces per bottle or nursing session, spaced every 3 to 4 hours during the day. That works out to roughly 4 to 6 feedings in 24 hours, depending on how much solid food your baby is eating and whether they still feed at night.
The upper limit for formula in a 24-hour period is about 32 ounces. Going consistently above that can crowd out solid foods and lead to nutritional imbalances, particularly iron deficiency, since formula alone doesn’t supply everything a growing 9-month-old needs. If your baby regularly drains more than 32 ounces and still seems hungry, that’s a sign they need more solid food rather than more milk.
Breastfed babies regulate their own intake at the breast, so exact ounce counts are harder to track. The best proxy is output: at least six wet diapers a day signals your baby is getting enough fluid.
How Solid Foods Change the Equation
Nine months is a turning point in how you structure meals. Before this age, the standard advice is to offer breast milk or formula first and then follow with solids. Starting around 9 months, you can flip that order, giving solids first and then topping off with milk. This gradual shift helps your baby naturally transition toward a food-based diet by their first birthday.
By now, your baby should be eating solids at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus one or two small snacks. As those meals get more substantial, you’ll notice your baby drinking slightly less milk at some sessions. That’s normal and expected. The key is that milk and solids together are meeting your baby’s calorie and nutrient needs, not that the milk volume stays fixed.
A realistic daily pattern at 9 months might look like this: a nursing session or bottle in the morning, breakfast solids, a mid-morning milk feed, lunch solids, an afternoon milk feed, dinner solids, and a final milk feed before bed. Some babies consolidate further and drop to four milk sessions with three solid meals.
What About Water?
Babies between 6 and 12 months can have 4 to 8 ounces of plain water per day. That’s a small amount, offered in a cup alongside meals. Water at this age is more about practicing cup skills and supplementing hydration on hot days than replacing milk. It should never cut into breast milk or formula intake, which is still doing the heavy nutritional lifting.
Juice is unnecessary and best avoided entirely at this age. Milk (breast or formula) and small sips of water are the only drinks a 9-month-old needs.
Night Feedings at 9 Months
Many 9-month-olds no longer need to eat overnight. Formula-fed babies can generally drop night feeds starting around 6 months, and by 9 months most are capable of getting all their calories during daytime hours. If your baby still wakes to eat, one feed is common, but it’s reasonable to start gradually reducing the volume.
A practical approach for bottle-fed babies: reduce the night bottle by about 20 to 30 ml (roughly an ounce) every two nights. So if your baby currently drinks 6 ounces at night, drop to 5 ounces for two nights, then 4 ounces, and so on. Once you’re down to about 2 ounces, you can stop offering the bottle altogether and resettle your baby with other comfort techniques. Breastfeding parents can shorten nursing sessions by a minute or two on a similar timeline.
Dropping night feeds doesn’t reduce total daily intake for most babies. They compensate by drinking more during the day, which is exactly the goal.
Signs Your Baby Is Getting Enough
Counting ounces is useful, but your baby’s body gives you more reliable feedback than any chart. Look for at least six wet diapers in 24 hours. Fewer than that can signal dehydration, especially during illness or hot weather.
Other reassuring signs include steady weight gain at checkups, an alert and active temperament during wake windows, and your baby showing interest in both milk and solid foods without refusing either consistently. Babies at this age are naturally variable. One day they’ll drain every bottle, and the next they’ll barely finish half. A single off day is not a concern. A pattern of low intake over several days, combined with fewer wet diapers or unusual fussiness, is worth bringing up with your pediatrician.