I went on a quest to find the best baby bottles that wouldn’t be too expensive. Below, I rank these baby bottles from worst to best, based on my experience.
In my search for the best baby bottles out there, I tried 7 different brands for my baby. The Playtex VentAire leaked, while the level 1 nipple of the Evenflo Vented + is really slow-flowing. The Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles are fine. Except they sometimes seem to leak from the anti-colic valve. As for the Medela breast milk bottles, they’re as simple as they come.
These and the Tommee Tippee ones have nipples that tend to collapse when baby is feeding. The Dr Brown’s Options and MAM bottles are both anti-colic, but each bottle has 6 parts. The stem of the Dr Brown’s takes up a lot of space in the bottle.
By far the best ones in my experience are the Philips Avent Natural Anti-colic Baby Bottles, which are simply the least problematic. They never leak, and are of superior quality. The collar always sits correctly on the bottle, and baby never has any issues feeding from them.
2025 Update: I can’t recommend the Philips Avent, after all. There is a class action lawsuit against Dr Brown and Philips Avent, for using polypropylene for their bottles. The lawsuit alleges that the material, when heated, releases a significant amount of microplastics into the milk.
……….
As I started my search, I knew I wanted something BPA-free, and affordable. And also safe. When my nephew was a baby, I once saw him lose his grasp on his glass baby bottle, and it hit him on the forehead.
And while anything heavy falling on a baby will hurt, a heavier, more solid object will hurt more. So I figured I’d pass on glass bottles altogether.
Parts (6): cap, nipple, collar, bottle, (silicone?) rings/seals, vented base Bottles in the pack: 5 Features: “BPA, PVC and Phthalate Free,” Anti-Colic, Anti-Reflux
These VentAire baby bottles were a gift. Now the box said “anti-colic” and “anti-reflux”—what mom wouldn’t want those, right? Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out to be the best baby bottle available.
There really was no way for us to find out if the claims were true. Because the bottles leaked like crazy around the vented detachable base.
“Swimming in milk is fun!”
“Maybe the parts are damp…”
Or so I thought. I then made sure they were completely dry. But did this fix the problem? No. How about tightening the base? That was the next thing that I tried, and the bottles still leaked. This was the point when I started to wonder if we ended up with faulty bottles. Idk.
There were 5 bottles in the pack—they all leaked. Looking back now, I’m not even sure it’s possible that the bottom wouldn’t leak. They literally looked like the nozzle of a watering can. Were these VentAire bottles tested for quality control?
It’s like even if you were to donate these, there wouldn’t even be anything you could say to your friend to get her to take the baby bottles. And your sales pitch won’t be like from when you wanted to get rid of your old couch so you wouldn’t have to pay the $150 junk removal fee.
(“Great condition, just a bit scratched up in 2 small areas. You can’t even really see the scratches.”)
(To illustrate) It’s like, “Ta-daa! Oh wait, no. No bunny to see here.“
Trying to give away these VentAire bottles be like…
“The leakprobably won’t turn into a pool of milk.”
(Said no one ever.)
At the end of the day, Playtex VentAire bottles turned out to be a product that made promises, yet failed to do their basic job. Which is to provide milk to baby. No thanks.
Evenflo Vented + Angled Baby Bottles (9 oz) $
⭐⭐⭐ (3 / 5)
Parts (4): cap, nipple, collar, bottle Bottles in the pack: 6 Features: BPA-free; free of polycarbonates, PVC and phthalates; anti-colic, anti-gas, “prevents fussiness”
When I saw these online, I was thrilled to get them. I like cheap, simple things that work, and many other anti-colic bottles have more than 4 parts. Taking parts apart, washing them, setting them in the sterilizer and sterilizing them 2x daily is never the high point of my day (well, OK, maybe a little bit—because my sterilizer is fun to use).
However, these baby bottles always gave me the feeling that they’re not all they claim to be. While my baby has not had gas issues, I’ll be honest. And maybe this is just a feeling, or even pure paranoia. But I’m a little suspicious of these bottles.
“Hey man, I’m a magical, majestic being, promise..”
Did Evenflo, in their labs, really make certain discoveries that led to the all too simple construction of these anti-colic bottles?!
Maybe. I dunno. Sometimes you buy something so cheap you realize you can’t trust it.
I was the one that purchased these bottles, indeed. So there’s that. Still.
Newborn (slow flow) nipples
These are the nipples that come with these bottles. As a result, my baby takes forever and a day to drink from these bottles.
lt’s been a struggle to find medium flow nipples at stores, and online. So I tried to make the holes are bigger myself – by poking holes in them. And ruining them in the process (well, 3 of the 6). My bad. But one thing’s for sure. Evenflo’s idea of ‘slow flow’ seems to be slower than regular slow flow nipples.
Perhaps they should rename the brand.
To Evenslo…wer.
On top of that, as these things go, Vented + baby bottle nipples have a unique structure to them, or their very own baby bottle nipples for this specific line of their products.
So I couldn’t just use any other standard baby bottle nipples with these.
L-R Tommy Tippee, MAM (5 oz), Dr Brown, Philips Avent, Medela, MAM (9 oz), Evenflo Vented+
And then the measurements on the bottle are raised. Which at some point had me wondering if they double as some type of braille. But no, braille numbers don’t look like that.
Maybe so the numbers don’t get erased from the bottles? That’s not it. Because there are printed designs on the bottles.
Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Baby Bottles (9 oz) $
⭐⭐⭐🌠 (3.5 / 5)
Parts (4): cap, nipple, collar, bottle Bottles in the pack: 3 Features: BPA-free; anti-colic valve on the nipple
Why I asked for these in my baby registry
I thought it was cute how chunky these were, and the chunkiness meant it would be easier for baby to hold them.
My sister used these with her baby.
BPA-free and anti-colic features. I guess this does came in third, while cuteness and my sister using these bottles are higher on the list.
They seemed more affordable compared to a bunch of other baby bottles.
What’s not to love?
Apart from the fact that the nipple collapses (caves, then baby has to wait for it to resume its shape), the bottle has to be held at an angle, or they leave a mess of formula on my baby’s chin and neck area.
What angle that is, I always forget. Since we use a few different baby bottle brands.
But do we really need to remember angles just so the baby bottle doesn’t leak? Besides, a lot of us have mommy brain, and will likely forget that correct good angle. With the best baby bottle in this list, the angle the bottle has to be held at is never an issue.
So yeah, that is really asking too much from sleepless mamas.
“It’s OK! I love swimming!”
Another thing is that whenever I prepare these Tommee Tippee bottles, it seems the bottle nipples tend to pull all the way outthrough the collar. When they’re supposed to ‘sit’ on the collar.
All in all, these Closer to Nature baby bottles really seem closer to messy…
And then this picture is closer to blurry…
Medela Breast Milk Storage Baby Bottles (5 oz) $
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 / 5)
Parts (4): cap, nipple, collar, bottle Bottles in the pack: 3 Features: BPA-free, leak-proof
This one came with my first breast pump, and yes, this bottle is intended for breastmilk. But I use it with baby formula.
A good baby bottle, but…
Each bottle can only hold as much as 5 oz of milk. It seems with this capacity, this baby bottle is more for infants and younger babies.
Another issue is that the nipples also tend to collapse, and baby has to stop feeding so the bottle nipple could resume its shape.
“Is it asking too much to get baby nipples that don’t collapse!? This ought to be plain as a pipestem!”
MAM Baby Bottles
⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠 (4.5 / 5)
Parts (6): cap, nipple, collar, bottle, (silicone?) rings/seals, vented base Bottles in the pack: 1 Features: BPA-free, anti-colic
The MAM brand is Austrian (not where Raygun is from), from Europe.
The shape of MAM nipples
These nipples have a specific ‘flattened’ shape tothem, so they lay flat on the baby’s tongue. Now I like that idea. Thing is, I don’t think the flat side of the bottle nipple will always end up flat on my baby’s tongue, as it should. For the most part, this is OK.
But sometimes, in the dim light of my room at 4:26 AM… Knowing that I have to wake up at 8AM… I just can’t find the energy to make sure my baby’s feeding from the bottle correctly. And the thought of the bottle nipple not laying flat on the tongue is just too much.
I also feel like 3 times out of 5, I have to make sure that I screw the collar onto the bottle correctly. Otherwise, one side sits higher, the seal is not complete, and formula starts to leak. This happens easily.
Rings/seal and vented base
While these bottles have 6 parts to them, no leaks come from the vented base. If you make sure you form a tight seal. Playtex could learn a thing or 2 from MAM here.
Plusss…
The rings/seals, vented base, collars and nipples fit both the big and smaller bottles. Yes! The parts are interchangeable! So I never have to think about which parts go with which size bottles!
A good baby bottle is a legit cause to celebrate with colorful lights and loud toog toog toog music
WHICH IS AWESOME!
Because I usually only sleep 5 hours and don’t always like to think.
I also noticed that the caps of these MAM bottles have measurements on them. From 10-50 mL and 0.5 to 1.5 US fl oz. My guess is that these are for formula, in case you misplace the scoop? But I’m really not sure. These were a nice addition, though.
More parts, more problems
Every now and then, I remember something our plumber said one time, when we had a leak under our kitchen sink. I had the stop valve to replace the broken one, but he wanted to use a different stop valve. He said that sometimes, more parts means more parts can break, and opted for a simpler stop valve.
Cleaning 2 extra bottle parts twice a day means cleaning them 730 times in a year. Now maybe mentioning that means I’m just being lazy. But I have about 5 of the MAM bottles. Which means that I’ll be cleaning and sterilizing 10 extra bottle parts 2 times for 365 days (sorry, didn’t mean to conjure a math problem) until my baby is a year old.
“I see you sterilizing extra baby bottle parts… 7,300 times in a year…”
As a sleepless mom, I can’t say I’m happier cleaning extra baby bottle parts. That’s like saying…
Why sign up to clean more baby bottle parts when you don’t have to?
Dr. Brown’s Options Baby Bottles (8 oz) $$
⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠 (4.5 / 5)
Parts (6): cap, nipple, collar, reservoir bulb & tube, insert (green silicone), bottle Bottles in the pack: 1 Features: BPA-free, anti-colic
Another seemingly popular baby bottle with 2 extra parts. When I got this as a baby shower gift, true to form, I threw away the box without reading what was printed on it. After looking at online listings for the product, I’m just now finding out that using the reservoir and insert is optional.
I mean, it’s called Options. That’s probably not rocket science.
Although the whole optional thing confuses me. Why were the reservoir and insert added, if using them is optional?
Colic vs. no colic — that’s the option? 🧐 Yeah, clearly I’m not understanding things.
Also, I need to do whatevery time?
Sorry, more complaints coming for these 2 baby bottle parts. I have to touch the reservoir and insert whenever I mix a bottle of formula. Doesn’t that somehow defeat the purpose of sterilizing them?
How about using sterilized bottle tongs, brah? Maybe use sterile gloves, or something?
Tried that. I only have plastic ones, and the insert just slides off and ends up on the dirtiest part of my floor at 3AM.
Now I could try to find silicone bottle tongs..
Or I could just give up and say using the insert and reservoir just isn’t practical.
Is Dr Brown really asking us sleepless mamas to go through all that trouble to prepare a bottle of formula? This I think is the reason why this bottle is not #1 in my list.
The #1 baby bottle in this list is also anti-colic.
Yet it doesn’t have the bulky reservoir and insert that the Dr Brown’s Options Anti-Colic baby bottles have.
trying to catch the Dr Browns Options reservoir thing at 3 AM
I’m also getting O.C. about the fact that these Dr Brown’s Options baby bottles can only hold 8 oz of milk, when many other bottles this size can usually hold 9 oz.
Clearly, my non-favorite reservoir and insert take up a good amount of space inside the bottle.
Just the same, even though these Dr Brown’s Options bottles are not my favorite, they’re OK. I prefer them over the ones higher up on this list.
I just wouldn’t choose them over my #1 favorite baby bottles.
And the #1 baby bottle IMHO is…
The Philips Avent Natural Anti-colic Baby Bottle (9 oz)
The best baby bottle available?
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Parts (4): cap, nipple, collar, bottle Bottles in the pack: 3 Features: BPA-free, anti-colic, “natural response” nipples come in levels 1-5
What badly Photoshopped bottles look like
“The Philips Avent Natural Anti-Colic baby bottles are as close to perfect as baby bottles can get.”
This baby bottle is the only one with a vented cap. Likely created to prevent accidental suffocation. There is a dip on the cap where you can place your thumb, and the cap pops right off.
The tight seal of the cap wasn’t something I liked at first, but I think this was made to offer added protection. If this is the worst thing about this baby bottle, it’s still a party 🥳 (Scroll down—it isn’t).
(I thought ) these Philips Avent Natural Anti-Colic baby bottles were just so awesome
Proportion + structure
The shape of these bottles show the perfect balance of width and height. These baby bottles are not too wide, nor too tall.
These are my favorite baby bottles of all. And it does matter that I like the bottles. 😄 Since I’m the one that has to clean and prep them.
Each baby bottle only has 4 parts. So the bottlenipple pulls tightly and securely into the collar, and does not end up getting pulled all the way out, when I try to pull the bottle nipples into the collars. There are US/UK measurements that sit side by side, for oz, which are easy to see.
Not sure why I’m facing the other way here but we should do a concert for these Phillips Avent baby bottles
With the Philips Avent bottles, the collar always sits correctly on the bottle.
There’s no way to plop the collar and nipple onto the bottle and end up with one side sitting higher than the other. To me, this tells a good story of research, testing and workmanship.
With these bottles, I feel like there was a reason behind the creation of each and every detail. These are the least problematic baby bottles that we have.
2025 Update (Important)
So the tight cap wasn’t the worst thing about my previously #1, the Avent. I’ve just shortened my review of the baby bottle, and have burned my I heart Avent signs. Because after all that fangirling, it turns out I can’t recommend the Philips Avent, after all. Or possibly any plastic baby bottles.
Are there plastic baby bottles not made of polypropylene? I don’t know.
It’s upsetting. This isn’t even like the Mr Perfect situation. It’s more like being given given your favorite ice cream. Then finding out it’s chockful of lead. And this had to happen to our little ones. 😔
I don’t know what I’d consider to be the best baby bottle out there. Is polypropylene fairly safe if milk is served cold, or at room temperature? Not sure. Now I don’t trust the material at all.
Recommendations
My little one is a toddler now, and doesn’t need to drink milk out of a bottle anymore. But after finding out about polypropylene, I just bought a couple of Zak Designs stainless steel sippy cups.
For infants and babies
It may be worth considering glass bottles. I just don’t know how shatter-proof these are.
Or get on the waitlist for the Chicco Duo (currently out of stock at a lot of retailers, including Chicco), which is also anti-colic and is made with glass on the inside and plastic on the outside.
Another option that I found is Yooforea—not sure if this is You for rea(l) or Euphoria. But look into Yooforea Silicone Coated Glass Baby Bottles.
Good luck with your search, mama 💖.
your favorite ice cream
I hope this review was useful and entertaining to you. Which brands of baby bottles do you use, and what’s your experience with them? Which one/s would you recommend, or not recommend?Let me know below 🙂
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