Best Baby Bottles

There are few boxes that the Philips Avent Natural Glass baby bottle doesn’t check, which is probably why it won the Best Glass Baby Bottle Brand in the What to Expect Feeding Awards. Parents in the What to Expect community love that it’s appropriate for breastfed or formula-fed babies, is designed to reduce gas and is highly durable. It’s also made of glass, which the AAP recommends as the best material for baby bottles.

I alternated between a few different bottles with my two children, but found myself reaching for Philips Avent bottles most often: In part because my sons took to them very well. Both of my breastfed sons had no issues transitioning back and forth between this bottle and the breast. The wide, flat nipple releases milk only when your baby actively sucks, mimicking the way he nurses. Philips Avent also offers more nipple flow rates than most other brands, which can give you more options to find the perfect fit for the stage your baby is currently at.

The design of this bottle also scores points for being well suited for babies with colic or gas. It’s gently curved, a feature Dr. Resnick recommends to reduce how much air baby swallows while drinking, but not dramatically so, which means the bottle isn’t overly bulky. When your baby is older, the shape allows for little hands to easily hold their own bottle.

Another reason Philips Avent became my go-to: they’re so much easier to clean and use than a lot of other brands. The glass is heat- and shock-resistant, so bottles can be safely warmed or sterilized in the microwave and put in the dishwasher. And while plastic bottles tend to get a little milky-looking after many months of use, parents say they’ve been able to use Philips Avent glass bottles for years with different babies by purchasing new nipples. So while they’re a little more expensive than their plastic counterparts, you might get long-term use out of them.

One final consideration with glass bottles is that some day care centers don’t allow them. So if your little one will be going to daycare at some stage, it may be worth having a few plastic bottles on hand (Philips Avent also has an excellent plastic version of the Natural bottle).

Material: Glass

Available bottle sizes: 4 oz. and 8 oz.

Available nipple sizes: 0 months, 0+ months, 1+ months, 3+ months, 6+months

It’s common for breastfed babies to resist the bottle at first. And although every child is different and a lot comes down to preference, many parents in the What to Expect community say their breastfed babies do well with Nuk Simply Natural bottles, which are designed to make it easy for babies to switch back and forth between bottle-feeding and breastfeeding.

The nipple on this bottle in particular is designed with breastfed babies in mind. It has multiple holes to help the flow of milk feel more like nursing. (There are three, six or nine holes in the nipple depending on which size your baby is using.) It’s soft and flexible with a flat edge, a feature that’s meant to feel more like a mother’s nipple during breastfeeding.

“My daughter wasn’t too picky with bottles, but I found she transitioned from breast to bottle easiest with Nuk bottles,” says Leah Rocketto, What to Expect’s Associate Commerce Director. “With other bottles she took a minute or two to adjust, but with the Nuk she would start sucking instantly.”

Leah also loved that the Nuk bottles were wide for easier cleaning, but not so wide that they took up significant space in the cabinet. She does note, however, that you have to give your baby the bottle with the flat side of the nipple down, otherwise they’ll struggle. 

Nuk Simply Natural bottles also seem to be a good fit for little ones who have colic. They include an anti-colic air vent that many reviewers call out as helpful for reducing colic symptoms. EThe SafeTemp indicator on these bottles, which changes color when milk is too hot, is a nice bonus. They are also a great fit for babies who are already comfortable with Nuk pacifiers.

Some parents do say this bottle doesn’t feel quite as high-end or well-made as some others. But at just over $6, this is also one of the most affordable bottles on our list.

Material: Plastic

Available bottle sizes: 5 oz. and 9 oz.

Available nipple sizes: Slow, Medium, Fast

Moms who exclusively pump have an epic number of breast pump and bottle parts to transfer milk between and clean.The Kiinde System helps streamline this process by letting you pump directly into storage bags that then attach to bottle frames that your baby can drink from.This starter pack includes everything you need to collect pumped milk and feed it to your baby: It comes with 20 pouches, two bottle frames, a breast milk organizer, three different nipples with a storage case for each and two nipple brushes.

Parents in the What to Expect community rave about this system, saying it’s incredibly convenient and helps eliminate a step in the milk-pumping process, since you no longer have to transfer breast milk from whichever container you pumped into back to a bottle.

But in addition to being an innovative system, the Kiinde products themselves are great, parents say. The cleverly designed bottle frames, which hold bags of the pumped milk and can be purchased on their own, have ridges that make it easy for baby to hold. And if your little one doesn’t do well with the Kiinde nipple, you can purchase adaptors to use your preferred brand instead.

Kiinde’s storage bags are pre-sterilized, stand up straight (other breast milk storage bags typically do not, which can make storing and using them frustrating) and have sturdy twist-top caps. While bottles with disposable liners are less environmentally friendly than other options on the market, Kiinde bags are recyclable.

The biggest downside with this system is that you need to continuously purchase more bags for as long as your baby is bottle-fed, which can be expensive. Some parents say they make their supply of storage bags last longer by pumping directly into a plastic baby bottle occasionally, such as when they plan to feed the pumped milk to their baby immediately.

Material: Plastic

Available bottle sizes: 6 oz. and 8 oz. pouch

Available nipple sizes: Slow, Medium, Fast

If your little one seems to be suffering from gas or colic, Dr. Resinck says the shape of your bottles might be a contributing factor. “Curved bottles are designed to reduce the swallowing of air and to cut down on gas and fussiness,” he explains. 

Tommee Tippee Advanced Anti-Colic bottles are curved and have a special tube insert that drives air bubbles to the back of the bottle, further reducing gas. The wide-necked design also helps baby maintain a good latch during feedings. And if you're a nervous new parent, you'll also love that the anti-colic tube has a temperature check to let you know if your baby's bottle is too warm for comfort. (It turns pink if things are too hot, a signal you’ll notice no matter how sleep-deprived you are.)

The texture and shape of the nipples are similar to a real nipple, so it's easy to switch from bottle to breast. The brand also has two newborn nipple options — a slow flow and extra slow flow — which makes it easier to find the right one to suit your little one.

The bottle shape is narrower at the bottom and wider at the top for easy handling, allowing the bigger bottles to be shorter (and easier to drink from) compared to comparably sized bottles. The 5- and 9-ounce sizes are great for preparing 4 or 8 ounces of formula, as they give you room to shake up the formula.

This five-bottle set includes three in the 9-ounce size and two that hold 5 ounces, as well as one bottle brush, two nipples, two formula dispensers, a set of removable handles, two pacifiers and a travel bottle warmer.

It’s worth noting that some reviewers say they’ve had leaking issues with these bottles. Other parents say making sure the vent is positioned correctly seems to prevent leaking. 

Material: Plastic

Available bottle sizes: 5 oz. and 9 oz.

Available nipple sizes: 0+ Months Extra Slow Flow, 0+ Months Slow Flow, 3+ Months Medium Flow, 6+ Months Fast Flow

Comotomo's unique bottle design is easy for baby to adjust to and What to Expect parents love how easy these are to clean. The wide mouth and collapsible sides mean you don't need a special brush to de-gunk these bottles by hand, and all parts are microwave-, dishwasher- and sterilizer-safe, too.

Alexandra Bisonó, Senior Art Director at What to Expect, tried several bottles with her daughter, who would spit up at every feeding. Eventually, they tried Comotomo which limited spit up and came with a few other features Alezandra loved. 

“We liked that Comotomo’s nipple shape is most similar to the breast and the fact that they’re all silicone,” Alexandra says. 

Since the silicone is squishy and soft, older babies like holding and squeezing these bottles during feedings, which can keep them engaged in the matter at hand. Alexandra says her daughter “loved holding that bottle and it seemed easy because of the texture since they were soft and easy to squeeze.” You’ll also appreciate the vents at the top of the nipples to release air outside instead of going into baby’s belly. The bottles themselves are also easy to put together and take apart, so you're spending less time making baby's bottle.

I didn’t discover Comotomo bottles until I had my second baby, and he used them often and loved touching the bottle base — the soft texture actually seemed to calm him when he was fussy. And like many parents in our community, I appreciated that they have just three large parts and are extremely easy to clean. For this reason, we used Comotomo bottles more and more often as my son got older; since he was drinking less milk, I found it easier to just clean the same bottle by hand before each feeding rather than clean multiple bottles at the end of the day.

This set comes with two 5-ounce bottles. At $14 each, they are definitely on the pricier side for baby bottles. But many parents report that since they’re so easy to clean, you actually need fewer of them, especially as your baby gets older and drinks less milk throughout the day.

The one downside of Comotomo bottles, in my opinion, is that they aren’t the easiest baby bottles to store. The roly-poly design, while lovely to touch, takes up an annoying amount of space in kitchen cabinets. I found them particularly frustrating to travel with because they don’t stack well against each other in a bag. So while they’re an excellent daily baby bottle, they may not be the best choice if you have limited kitchen storage or need to travel with your baby often.

Material: 100 percent silicone

Available bottle sizes: 5 oz. and 8 oz.

Available nipple sizes: 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6+ months

If storage is a priority, Dr. Brown’s Options+ baby bottles are far and away your best bet. Their tall, narrow shape is extremely streamlined, with no ridges, grooves or uneven edges. Unlike Comotomo bottles, for example, their design makes them incredibly easy to store: You can fit more of these bottles together on a shelf and they stack nicely in a bag or bin. 

“Dr. Brown’s bottles were our go-to when we’d leave the house,” says Leah, who notes how easily they fit into the side pockets of her diaper bags. “The multiple parts make them less than ideal for a daily use bottle, but they’re perfect for a day out or weekend away because of how easily they fit into a bag or suitcase without taking up too much real estate.”

The slim bottle shape is also very easy for babies to hold, too. We used these bottles with my older son, and he was able to self-feed with Dr. Brown’s bottles much earlier than he could with other brands.

But there are more reasons to love these bottles than just their sleek design. Dr. Brown's bottles have a special internal vent system that's designed to help reduce gas and colic. A tube forces air into the base of the bottle, which keeps it from being reingested by baby during feedings. The nipple design on Dr. Brown’s bottles also slows the flow of milk, which can help prevent spit-up, burps and gas. 

Dr. Brown’s is recommended by a variety of experts. “These are the bottles speech-language pathologists recommend,” says Dr. Resnick. In baby’s early months, the palate is continuing to shape and they’re working muscles that will eventually prepare them for solid food and language development. The right bottle supports that process.

And if your baby has reflux, the Dr. Brown’s bottle could be a good choice for ensuring she gets the nutrition she needs, says Dr. Resnick (but it’s a good idea to check with your pediatrician to confirm). Olivia DeLong, What to Expect’s Senior Editor, can attest to how well Dr. Brown’s bottles help with acid reflux, which her daughter dealt with as a baby. 

“We tried every single type of bottle and kept coming back to Dr. Brown’s because she took to those the best,” Olivia says. “They seemed to be the ones that minimized her reflux the most and were easy to use.” Another thing Olivia likes about Dr. Brown’s bottles was how easy it was to up the nipple size, because the brand is available pretty much everywhere. 

The only complaint parents tend to have, which Leah mentioned, is how many parts there are to clean. While some bottles on this list have just three parts, Dr. Brown’s has five. All parts, however, are top-rack dishwasher and sterilizer safe to make for easier cleaning. And in my experience, the bottle works perfectly fine without the tubing system, so you don’t have to use it if you find it doesn’t make a difference for your baby or she outgrows the need for it.

Material: Silicone nipple and BPA-free plastic

Available bottle sizes: 4 oz. and 8 oz.

Available nipple sizes: 0+ months, 3+ months, 6+ months, 9+ months

Glass bottles are becoming increasingly common because they are easy to clean, last a long time and are environmentally friendly. In addition to the Philips Avent glass bottle, Lifefactory Glass Baby Bottles are another popular choice in the What to Expect community. With their distinctive silicone sleeve, many parents say that they were initially impressed by the look of Lifefactory bottles, but ended up loving them for their quality and functionality.

Although glass, parents say these bottles are surprisingly durable. The glass is thermal shock-resistant borosilicate and the non-slip silicone sleeve seems to protect the bottle very effectively. In fact, there are countless stories in the What to Expect community of Lifefactory bottles dropping but staying intact. The entire bottle, along with the sleeve, can be placed in the dishwasher. It can also be used to freeze liquids.

Some What to Expect parents say their babies didn’t respond well to the Lifefactory nipple, which anecdotally seems to have a faster flow than other brands. And Lifefactory bottles are more expensive than some others on this list. But many parents say the initial investment is worth it since they hold up so well over time and can grow with your baby. When your little one graduates from the bottle, the brand has compatible sippy cup and straw tops you can use instead.

Material: Glass

Available bottle sizes: 4 oz. and 9 oz.

Available nipple sizes: Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3

You don’t see as many stainless steel baby bottles on the market as you do plastic or even glass, but they offer some undeniable benefits. Stainless steel is the most durable baby bottle material, and there are no concerns about chemicals that can be found in plastic.

A number of parents in the What to Expect community recommend Pura Kika’s stainless steel bottles, praising how durable, lightweight and sustainable they are. Although pricey (at $21 each, these are significantly more expensive than other bottles on this list), parents say the initial investment is well worth it because the bottles can last for years to come. Once your baby outgrows the bottle and is ready to transition to a sippy cup, you can save the stainless steel base and use a different top (the brand has sipper spouts, straws and sport tops that are compatible with the same stainless steel base).

In addition to price, there are a few downsides to consider with stainless steel bottles. Some parents say it can be trickier to read and measure the lines indicating volume of milk in this bottle, although others say you get the hang of it after some time. Not all babies are a fan of the brand’s nipple, which is a bit more basic, and it may not be as well suited for babies with gas or colic.

Material: Stainless steel

Available bottle sizes: 5 oz. and 9 oz.

Available nipple sizes: Slow, Medium Flow, Fast Flow, Youth Flow