H.A.
I went through this with my little girl.
Firstly, I think your pediatrician might be wrong. Your daughter MIGHT be hungry when she wakes up. My daughter went through a growth spurt around that time. If you try to nurse her, does she drink a good amount? That is your clue that she actually is hungry. At that point, I would ignore your pediatrician's advice and feed her.
Another thing is, a lot of children around this age get so caught up in their newfound abilities (crawling, walking, etc.) that they do not eat enough during the day because they are simply too busy. So then they try to make up for it at night and interrupt your sleep. So simply ensuring that your daughter has the opportunity to eat regular meals and snacks through the day (even if she doesn't seem hungry) may prevent the night wakings, if they are due to hunger. (I'm not saying force feed her, simply sit her down in her high chair with some finger foods or whatever, and allow her the opportunity to eat.)
Now, if your daughter isn't actually hungry when she wakes up, (she breastfeeds, but only for a short time, and doesn't drink much milk), then your problem is a little different. There are a number of ways to resolve this, but the way that worked for my daughter was this:
I would come into her room, make sure nothing was wrong, give her her blankie and pacifier, settle her down, and tell her, "Sleepy time, time for sleep. Mama loves you." And then I would walk out, whether she was crying or not.
5 minutes later, if she was still crying, I would come in and do the same thing.
10 minutes later, if she was still crying, I would come in and do the same thing.
And I would repeat every 5-10 minutes until she fell asleep.
It takes a little patience, but after 2 or 3 nights, my daughter never went longer than 15 minutes. I felt it worked for me because I wasn't "abandoning her" (coming in every 5 minutes to let her know I love her and settle her back down) but I also made it clear she wasn't going to get songs, rocking, and nursing for an hour and a half.
Oh, and I would strongly urge you not to give up nursing just for this reason. I seriously doubt that whatever is making your daughter wake up at night will be solved by you giving her a bottle instead of breastfeeding. I think you can resolve whatever the issue is while still nursing.
Good luck.