Best Baby Bottles 2017
6. Philips AVENT Natural Baby Bottles. About $4-5 per bottle (you can get them in 4oz or 9oz sizes). Philips AVENT bottles have been around for a long time now, but they are an innovative company that keeps improving their bottles to accomodate changing needs of moms and emerging research. The Natural series of AVENT bottles is no exception, and is a great all-around baby bottle option. The base and nipple are quite similar in form and function to the Tommee Tippee, but with slightly narrower nipple base, and narrower overall screw base as well. We found that the nipples were soft and compliant, promoted comfortable and fast latch-on, and the twin-valve venting system was quite good at preventing air swallowing, gas, and colic. The twin valves are unique to the others on this list, with tiny slits at the very far edges of the nipple that help air get into the bottle to prevent a vacuum forming. The reasonably wide nipple base promotes a relatively real breast feel, and the wide neck promotes easier cleaning, though it's not quite as easy as with the Comotomo or Tommee Tippee. There are both glass and plastic versions, all BPA-free and free of other harmful chemicals (like all of the ones on this list). We prefer the glass, though we do understand that it's a bit heavier and makes moms nervous about breakage. Like the Tommee Tippee and Comotomo, the AVENT bottle has a nice ergonomic shape that helps babies learn how to grip and hold onto their own bottle. The venting system is quite nice, as it has no extra parts to clean, and we found that it works pretty well (though nothing is quite like the Dr. Brown's). Downfalls? Over the past few years, the AVENT bottles have used progressively thinner plastic that feels increasingly cheap, though the functionality hasn't seemed to change. We also didn't think the venting system was as good as the Comotomo, and maybe not quite as good as the Tommee Tippee. And with the glass version, it seems prudent to have a silicone sleeve for better grip and safety.
7. Flipsi Natural Silicone Baby Bottles. For anyone over the age of 40, they might remember the very popular Playtex bottles with the disposable bag of milk. You would fill the bag, drape it over the edges of the bottle, then screw on the nipple. They were really popular and excellent at preventing colic since the plastic bag could conform to the amount of remaining milk without generating any vacuum pressure build-up. The Flipsi baby bottle uses a similar concept, but has been executed in a much more ingenious way. It uses a silicone cup-like reservoir that you fill with milk, then place into the bottle itself, then screw on the nipple. The silicone sits over the top edge of the bottle, so when the nipple cap is screwed on a very nice seal is formed. This is an interesting concept for a few reasons: first, the flexible silicone is highly conformant, making it shrink in size to accommodate the decreasing amount of milk in the bottle. This prevents the negative back-pressure (vacuum) that can cause gas, spit-up, and colic. The silicone can also be pushed up a bit from the bottom and sides, to help this process occur. Basically what you're doing here is removing the need for a venting mechanism, which is often the source of leaks. Second, we loved that the silicone reservoir could be turned inside out for easy cleaning, including in the dishwasher. No more bottle brushes! Third, we liked the wide natural nipple shape that can reduce nipple confusion; the shape is quite similar to our highly rated Comotomo bottle. Fourth, silicone is quickly becoming a very popular food-grade product, with its heat and cold resistance, BPA-free quality, and durability. The jury is out regarding any leaching of harmful chemicals from silicone, though this particular silicone is free from BPA, BPS, phthalates, latex, nitrosamines, lead, PVC & PET. Downfalls? Not many, but our hands-on testing revealed a few things worth considering. First, the bottle was a bit larger in diameter than the others on this list, likely because it has the thick silicone reservoir surrounded by a plastic bottle, which makes it a bit more complex than the others. Second, speaking of complexity, having to assemble the bottle itself and then attach the nipple might be a detractor for some parents looking to save some time. Finally, for a plastic baby bottle the Flipsi is a bit expensive, coming in at around $10 each. Overall, however, we believe this is an exciting new addition to our baby bottles list, and after some long-term durability testing we believe it might start creeping higher on our list! 
8. Munchkin Latch Baby Bottles. About $6 per bottle. These latch bottles are relatively new to the baby bottle market, and they have some great innovative features. The unique anti-colic valve is located on the bottom of the bottle, which reduces the complexity of the washing process relative to the Dr. Brown's option. As the baby consumes more milk, the valve slowly allows air to enter the bottle, decreasing the negative pressure and reducing air ingestion. Less air being ingested means less burping and colic. In our testing, we thought the valve did a great job at reducing gas and colic. But we also thought that the design made it more difficult to clean, and we were never really confident that we got the valve entirely clean during washing. Also, in our testing the nipple became pushed in a few times, which was a bit frustrating to have to pull/pop back out intermittently. This didn't happen with all the babies, though it did happen with two of them so it's worth mentioning. Now let's talk about why they named this the "Latch" bottle. Latching onto a natural nipple is something that comes innately to most babies, and there is a symbiotic relationship between the baby's mouth position, their sucking rhythm, the nipple, and the milk release. Latching is when the baby sucks the nipple back to their soft palate. As any breastfeeding mom knows, a good latch means a good let-down and a very satisfied baby (and mom!). Munchkin was inspired by the latch process and created a nipple that mimics the feel, movement, and let-down of a mom's breast. The nipple stretches as the baby sucks, to allow the nipple to maintain a good latch. This isn't an entirely innovative concept, and in our opinion we believe the Comotomo does it a bit better. It also has dynamic milk flow: when the baby pushes more against the nipple, the flow increases (just like mom's). Finally, the accordian-style nipple also flexes with head and arm movement, helping the baby keep a latch and minimize air ingestion. First introduced onto our list in 2015, the Munchkin Latch is slowly rising up the list!
9. Playtex Ventaire BPA-free Bottles. About $4 per 9-ounce bottle. Playtex has been making excellent and innovative baby bottles for several decades, and the Ventaire is no exception. This model uses an angled bottle shape that makes it much easier to comfortably hold and tilt the bottle during feedings. This helps your arm from getting sore, but also puts baby in a relatively upright and natural position for feeding, without having to tilt their head way back. There is some mixed evidence that a relatively upright feeding position also helps reduce the odds of ear infections. Like the Munchkin, it uses an air flow valve at the bottom to help air enter the bottle and prevent a vacuum from forming as baby drinks the milk or formula. In our testing, we thought the valve did a very good job of keeping the flow rate nice and consistent, and also preventing too much air swallowing, burping, and spit-up. The nipple is nowhere near as wide and natural feeling as the Tommee Tippee or Comotomo, but our test babies did latch on easily and nobody rejected it, and we saw no signs of nipple confusion after using it several times. It uses a similar nipple texture as the Dr. Brown's to promote an easy latch. Cleaning was easy, with dishwasher safe (top-rack) parts that are all removable (the bottom valve, nipple, lid, can all be cleaned separately). The pack we got came with slow-flow nipples suitable for little babies (0-3m), though you can purchase medium and fast flow nipples separately. So there are a lot of great things about this bottle, and we think it's worth including on this list. However, there is one major downfall that we encountered: the venting mechanism on the base of the bottle tended to leak. We tested out the three bottles that came in the pack, and after leaving filled bottles on the counter (or in fridge) for a couple hours, there was a puddle formed under two of them. So overall this is a great bottle, but the odds are you might have a leaking problem like we did.
10. Born Free BPA-Free Bottles. About $5 per 9-ounce bottle. The Born Free bottles are relatively new to the baby bottle market (like the Comotomos), but they are making quite a splash. Like most fuss-free bottles, these use a unique ActiveFlow venting system that reduces gas and colic. In our testing, the ActiveFlow venting did indeed work very well, though we did find it a bit aggravating to have yet another small plastic piece to clean, assemble, and probably misplace! Like basically all modern bottles, the silicone nipple shape feels relatively natural and does a nice job controlling flow. If you get a gift set, it also includes some handy accessories: bottle brushes, silicone sleeves, level-3 (fast) nipples, and often a cool little formula holder and dispenser. One unique feature of these bottles is that they hold a bit more milk than the typical 4 and 8 ounce bottles, leaving a bit of room at the top when you mix in formula, which makes the mixing process much easier and more effective. Overall, we consider these bottles great for formula-fed babies, given that the nipple and base are not super natural feeling (like the Comotomo or even Tomee Tippee). Overall great bottles and good enough to make it onto our annual list. Also reasonably priced if you purchase with the accessories. Note that we also tested out the newer model, the Born Free Breeze, but it didn't make the list due to a poor (and collapsing) nipple design.
11. The Kiinde Breastmilk Collection, Storage, and Feeding System. It's not really fair of us to put a system like this in a list of baby bottles, but we had the opportunity to try it recently so we figured you all would like to read a bit about it. The concept is that you can use pouches similar in size and function to a juice pouch, to connect directly to your breast pump, use for freezer storage, and then use for feeding. The idea is that instead of using the typical Medela or Lanisoh bags for pumping and freezer storage only, you can also use them for feeding. It makes this possibly by incorporating a screw top onto the pouch instead of the usual Ziplock closure. The screw top can be directly attached to your manual or electronic breast pump. Then after pumping, you put a cap on the screw top and throw it in the refrigerator or freezer. When you're read to feed your baby, you can thaw a pouch in a bowl of lukewarm water (or using the Kiinde bottle warmer system). Then, slide the pouch into the Kiinde Squeeze bottle, squeeze out the air, and attach a nipple. The first time we tried the process we were impressed by how easily the pouch transitioned from one mode to another, like from pumping to storage, and storage to feeding. Kiinde also makes a nifty (though limited capacity) storage rack for your freezer to prevent random piles of pouches from stacking up and falling over. In any event, we have to applaud Kiinde for coming up with such a comprehensive system that handles the entire process from pumping to feeding. But the question we ended up asking ourselves was whether it was really a problem that needed solving? After pumping, you still need to clean the pump parts and the pump-to-bag adapter threads. Why not a small bottle while you're at it? So maybe that saves a little bit of clean-up time, but not much. Also, during our testing we thought it was challenging to tell exactly how much milk was getting into the bags. We pumped until the milk got to the 4 ounce mark, and then poured it into a Medela bottle and it was only about 2.5 ounces; turns out the milk wasn't heavy enough to really puff the bag out and get an accurate volume measure. But we do realize that's no different than any other breastfeeding pouch on the market. So we considered that maybe we were in the same position as before: pumping into a glass or plastic bottle to get an accurate measure, and then pouring into a bag for storage. How about the other feature, the fact that you can feed directly from the pouch, using an attachable nipple? This part we really liked. The nipple is good quality with a nice wide base, and the bottle does a nice job preventing gas and reflux due to the pouch not containing any air (the baby acts like a vacuum to suck out the milk, squeezing the pouch empty as they go). You can also squeeze the bottle a bit to simulate let-down. So maybe it's worth it after all? The pouches are about the same cost as the conventional (Medela and Lanisoh) pouches, but with the nifty cap. And if you puff out the bag a bit before pumping it will give you a more accurate volume indication. Overall, we think this concept is awesome, though the execution has some challenges. We say give it a try, but don't expect miracles. You can get a starter system with the pouches, adapters, nipples/squeeze bottles, and freezer rack for about $30 online. If you want the bottle warmer as well (note that it only fits Kiinde bottles), you can get the gift set for about $70 online. So certainly this system will set you back a bit relative to just purchasing some bottles and pouches for storage, but we think it might be worthwhile if your baby really takes a liking to the nipples, as it will certainly save you some time and energy.
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