The Best Baby Bottle Review |
|
Which emerge as the top baby bottles when 18 of the most popular competitors are compared side-by-side? Do all those anti-colic vents and valves really matter? Which nipple size and shape is best for baby? To find out, we took 18 of the top rated and most popular bottles on the market to see how they compared side-by-side. With a solid stint of hands-on-testing, we rated each on nipple comfort, ease-of-use, ease-of-cleaning, leakage in both feeding and travel, and on one of today's ever important topics, eco-health. After testing bottles of all shapes and sizes, we've narrowed down our favorites, just for you! Read on for the full review and comparisons.
Read the full review below > |
| Review by: Lindsay Ellis ⋅ Review Editor, BabyGearLab | December 12, 2012 |
| Top Ranked Baby Bottles | Displaying 1 - 5 of 18 | << Previous | View All | Next >> |
| Our Ranking | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | ||||||||||
| Product Name |
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
| Editors' Awards | | | | | |||||||||||
| Street Price | $14 List | $14 from Amazon | $13 List | $4.58 / unit from Amazon | $16 List | $9.14 / unit from Amazon | $15 List | $11 from Amazon | $7 List | $3.33 / unit from Amazon | ||||||||||
| Overall Score |
100
0
89
|
100
0
85
|
100
0
83
|
100
0
82
|
100
0
80
| ||||||||||
| Editors' Rating |
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
| Pros | Health concious, eco-friendly, durable, stylish, simple design, interchangeable spouts | Sturdy, wide mouth and nipple base, simple in a good way | Durable, wide neck and nipple base, helpful "let-down" effect, great transition bottle | Healthy glass container, durable, stylish, simple design, interchangeable spouts | Convenient, lightweight, good for pump-store-feed, disposable liners | ||||||||||
| Cons | Expensive (add $7-$9 for the optional silicone sleeve, which we consider a must), hard-to-read measuring indicators | Extra "tip" required to get all the milk out | Hard to read markings, hair and lint stick to outside | Heavy, breakage risk, silicone sleeve can make cleaning awkward, small nipple | Extra cost and waste from liners, hard to measure | ||||||||||
| Bottom Line | Functionality combined with the best eco and health conscious options out there, make this bottle a real winner in our opinion. | A durable, hassle-free bottle that made mom and baby very happy, and is attractively priced | A fun, durable choice, worth the splurge to give baby a mommy-like experience. | One of our favorite eco-health options | A convenient pump-store-feed and dispose bottle system that made mom and baby very happy | ||||||||||
| Date Reviewed | Dec 27, 2012 | Sep 30, 2012 | Sep 24, 2012 | Dec 12, 2012 | Sep 24, 2012 | ||||||||||
| Weighted Scores | Pura Kiki | Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature | Comotomo Natural Feel | Lifefactory Glass | Playtex Drop-ins Premium Nurser | ||||||||||
| Nipple - 25% |
10
0
8
|
10
0
9
|
10
0
9
|
10
0
6
|
10
0
9
|
||||||||||
| Ease-of-cleaning - 20% |
10
0
9
|
10
0
9
|
10
0
7
|
10
0
8
|
10
0
10
|
||||||||||
| Leakage - 30% |
10
0
9
|
10
0
9
|
10
0
9
|
10
0
9
|
10
0
9
|
||||||||||
| Ease-of-use - 10% |
10
0
9
|
10
0
8
|
10
0
7
|
10
0
9
|
10
0
7
|
||||||||||
| Eco-health - 15% |
10
0
10
|
10
0
6
|
10
0
8
|
10
0
10
|
10
0
2
|
||||||||||
| Product Specs | Pura Kiki | Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature | Comotomo Natural Feel | Lifefactory Glass | Playtex Drop-ins Premium Nurser | ||||||||||
| Available Sizes | 5/11 oz | 5oz/9oz | 5oz/8oz | 4oz/9oz | 4oz/8oz | ||||||||||
| Bottle Material | #304 Stainless Steel | Polypropylene | Silicone | Pharmacutical-grade Borosilicate Glass | Plastic | ||||||||||
| Free of Materials | BPA, phthalate, lead, PVC | BPA, phthalate | BPA, PVC, Phthalate | BPA, phthalate, PVC, polycarbonate, lead, latex | BPA | ||||||||||
| Nipple Material | Medical-grade Silicone | Silicone | Silicone | Silicone | Silicone | ||||||||||
| Top-Rack Dishwasher Safe | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||
| Vented | Nipple is | Yes | Yes | No | No | ||||||||||
| Empty Weight | 4.0 oz | 1.6oz | 3.6oz | 6.1oz | 1.8oz | ||||||||||
| Nipple Pinch Test | medium | firm | soft | medium | firm | ||||||||||
| Clearly marked measures? | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
BabyGearLab Editors' Hands-on Review
With all the different shapes, sizes, materials and special vents, valves and nipples that today's selection of baby bottles has to offer, it can be daunting to choose the right one for your baby. We looked at 30 of the most popular and highly rated bottles currently on the market, before narrowing down to 18 finalists which we put through our detailed hands-on testing. You can read about which important features we think make a bottle worth trying in our article How to Choose the Perfect Baby Bottle and learn about our testing strategies in How We Tested Baby Bottles.
Read on to find out which of the bottles earned a special BabyGearLab award! Editor's Choice The Comotomo Natural Feel won us over with its soft, squeezable silicone base and extra wide nipple base. It has an eye-catching design that actually serves a purpose. By gently squeezing the base, you can provide an effect similar to the natural "let-down" response a breastfeeding baby experiences, which we think makes this bottle a perfect choice for the breast-to-bottle transition. We found it to be adequately vented without the complicated valve systems some of the other bottles contained and that made cleaning and assembling a snap. It's sturdy, modern, practical and functional and for us, that's a winning combination! Best Value Award Wouldn't you know, one of our highest scoring bottles is available for a street price that also earns it our Best Value Award! Incredibly, the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottle scored second highest in our ratings but comes at an affordable mid-range street price. Averaging under $8 a piece, you'll get a durable, user-friendly bottle that should make baby pretty happy. It outshined the more complicated bottles and performed as well or better than bottles nearly twice the price. Simple, functional, durable AND affordable make this an excellent choice in bottles! Top Pick for Eco-Health The stainless steel and glass bottles we tested stomped their plastic counterparts when it came to eco-health. With so much concern about the chemicals found in some plastics, stainless steel and glass are the only really safe bet when it comes to baby's health (consider this Discovery article Even BPA Free Plastic Not Always Safe). We tested three glass bottles, the Evenflo Classic Glass, Lifefactory Glass and Dr. Browns Glass, and one stainless, the Pura Kiki. Although glass is a great option when it comes to baby’s health, it just couldn’t top stainless steel when it came to durability. So in this case, our top pick for eco-health goes to the Pura Kiki. It's a simple design without extra pieces and we LOVE the cute silicone sleeve you can add-on to increases grip and durability. One thing that pushed it over the top for us was that fact that it accommodates a wider-based nipple and you can swap the Pura nipple for many other popular nipple brands in case your baby has a strong preference. It can also transition to a sippy cup which means you'll get years of use out of your initial investment. To top it off, Pura also offers a lifetime warranty on the stainless steel components of their bottles. Kudos, Pura, on creating a thoughtful, healthy, environmentally responsible product! Top Pick for Use with a Breast Pump Many mothers who breastfeed also choose to use a breast pump. There are several ways to combine pumping with storing and feeding and we found the Playtex Drop-ins Premium Nurser to be an excellent pump-store-feed system. Mom and baby both enjoyed using this bottle and the Drop-in liners made it ultra convenient. — Lindsay Ellis Buying Advice
How we Test
|
Helpful Buying Tips
Get More BabyGearLab
Follow us on Twitter, be a fan on Facebook!
Popular Sections
Recent Best-in-Class Reviews
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||




































