The Best Baby Bottles of 2024 - Reviewed

The technology in MAM’s anti-colic baby bottles works well for slowing the flow of milk for young babies. Like the Dr. Brown’s option, MAM also allows you to size up on nipples as your baby gets older. The semi-wide neck of these baby bottles also makes them fairly easy to fill and clean, and is intended to fit onto the MAM Manual Breast Pump.

The brand also notes that the bottles can be self-sterilized by screwing off the bottom and adding water, then putting them in the microwave for three minutes—thus removing the added step of needing to put them through a separate machine or extra sterilization process.

Pros

• Anti-colic

• Easy to latch

• Easy to clean

• Easy to fill

• Large capacity

Cons

• Very leaky

• Thin, flat nipple shape

• Too many parts

Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Baby Bottle - 9oz

• Material: BPA-free plastic
• Dishwasher safe: Yes, top rack
• Available sizes: 9 ounce
• Nipple size options: Yes, extra slow to fast available
• Attaches to breast pumps: No
• Other lid options: No

Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature baby bottles are one of the most popular on the market, possibly because they are so inexpensive. Unfortunately, they feel cheaper than their competitors, with a rigid nipple and tinny-feeling plastic. The ounce markings are obvious and they’re easy to fill and clean (by hand or in the dishwasher), given their short and squat shape.

They’re also easy to store, due to their small size, and they didn’t leak. However, our son found the large nipple size difficult to latch onto.

Pros

• Inexpensive

• Easy to clean

• Easy to fill

• Obvious ounce markings

Cons

• Materials feel cheap

• Large nipple size

Nuk Simply Natural Baby Bottle - 5oz

• Material: Plastic and glass
• Dishwasher safe: Yes, top rack
• Available sizes: 5 ounce, 9 ounce, 10 ounce
• Nipple size options: Yes, slow, medium and fast
• Attaches to breast pumps: No
• Other lid options: No

Inexpensive pricing shows on the Nuk Natural Baby Bottles, too. The nipple is rigid, which means it presses against your baby’s face rather than giving a bit as they lean into it, and the nipple’s shape (flat on one side, rounded on the other) may be tough for your baby to latch onto.

That said, the wide-mouth shape of the baby bottle and minimal amount of parts makes it easy to clean and fill, and it didn’t leak.

Pros

• No leak

• Easy to clean

• Easy to fill

Cons

• Tough for baby to latch onto

• Rigid nipple

• Non-obvious ounce markings

Kiinde Twist Squeeze Bottle

• Material: BPA-, PVC-, and phthalate-free plastic
• Dishwasher safe: Yes, top rack
• Available sizes: Works with Kiinde breastmilk bags up to 6 ounces
• Nipple size options: Yes, set includes Slow Flow and Medium Flow
• Attaches to breast pumps: Yes, can pump into Kiinde bags
• Other lid options: Yes, with adapters can take other brand nipples

It’s tough to compare the Kiinde to the other baby bottles in this guide because it’s a whole different beast. The Kiinde Twist Squeeze is basically a plastic holder with a nipple, which allows you to slide bags of breast milk right inside. If you’re pumping breast milk into Kiinde bags, this saves you the step of needing to transfer the milk from a bag to a baby bottle.

The Squeeze is a great concept, but filling the milk bags is tough unless you pump right into them. (We experienced a lot of leaking, due to the small opening.) It’s also easy to leak more milk onto the counter when you remove the bag’s lid to screw it into the Squeeze bottle.

You won’t need to do as much washing—the only part that really needs to be cleaned is the nipple—but throwing away many plastic bags per day is not the most sustainable option. We also worried about the holder’s materials, which are made with a simple, thin plastic and feel likely to break over time. The nipple also was difficult for our son to latch onto, and the baby bottle’s shape makes it difficult for little ones to hold.

Pros

• Innovative concept

• Good for mamas who pump

• Less to wash

Cons

• Leaky

• Tough to store

• Tough to fill

• Environmentally unsustainable

• Tough to latch onto

How We Test Baby Bottles

The Testers

I’m Jenni Gritters, a journalist with a decade of experience writing about all things health and science. I previously edited longform product reviews about the outdoors, parenting, and travel at the New York Times product review site, Wirecutter. You can also find my bylines in all sorts of publications, like the New York Times, the Guardian, the REI Co-op Journal, Gear Patrol, and beyond.

I had my first baby—a little boy named Liam—in December 2019, and since then I’ve been reviewing baby gear and writing about the psychology of parenting. In the past, I’ve covered infant vitals monitors for Wirecutter and baby swings and baby baths for Reviewed. I was also an exclusive pumper because Liam was born prematurely and spent time in the NICU, so I have many, many months of experience under my belt spent filling, washing, and feeding him from baby bottles.

I’m Kate Ellsworth, an Executive Editor at Reviewed who oversees our lifestyle categories, including parenting. I’ve got a 7-month old baby girl, Vivienne, who has been using bottles since she was two weeks old. We combined breastfeeding, breastmilk, and formula until she was 6 months old, then we switched entirely to formula.

Fortunately, I worked in product testing before Vivienne was born, which means everything she owns—from her onesies to her toys—get my full analysis before we ever buy. I come at our bottle tests from the perspective of a mother and professional tester, recognizing that you won’t want to purchase anything but the absolute best for your baby.

The Tests

We used each baby bottle in this guide for at least two days. We filled them with infant formula or breast milk, offered them to our babies, Liam (8 months) and Vivienne (7 months), then cleaned the products by hand and in the dishwasher. Jennie even tried to fill them all with one hand while holding her 20-plus pound kiddo.

We did some serious leak-testing by packing the baby bottles in a diaper bag for car trips to the park. We also dropped them all—both purposefully and accidentally—to see if they remained intact, and allowed our babies to play with them (which meant they all got a very good shake).

Things to Consider When Selecting a Baby Bottle

It should be easy to assemble and fill

You should be able to easily put the pieces of the baby bottle together, which usually means popping in a nipple and screwing on the top. The best baby bottles should also have a mouth that’s wide enough to pour milk into without dumping it onto the counter. Or, if you’re using powdered formula, the baby bottle should allow for easy stirring. (Pro tip: We like to use a chopstick.)

It should be easy to wash

When choosing a baby bottle, look for a shape that makes it easy to clean. Milk or extra formula powder can get stuck in the cracks and corners, which can lead to bad smells and make the baby bottle unsafe for a baby to drink from. Most baby bottles can be put in a dishwasher, at least in the top rack, but we prioritized baby bottles with a wider-neck shape, which made them easier to clean with a good bottle brush.

It needs to be leak-free

You’re going to be cleaning up plenty of spit-up and spills as it is. So the last thing you need is to discover a puddle of breastmilk on the floor of the car next to a tipped-over bottle. Thus, we searched for baby bottles that sealed tightly and didn’t leak, even after being shaken up or dropped. Most came with lids, and we made sure that they sealed well and didn’t fall off in transit.

It needs to be durable

You’ll be using these baby bottles for at least a few months, if not for a full year, so we looked for bottles that could handle being used daily for many months without picking up nasty smells or cracking.

There are options for materials

Many baby bottles, including the majority of those reviewed here, are made from a lightweight and durable plastic. That's logical—the lighter weight makes them easier for tiny hands to hold onto and plastics are difficult to crack.

However, there has been increased concern from parents over the chemicals that can be leached from plastic food or beverage containers which is why you'll see mentions of BPA or phthalate-free plastics.

Some parents will opt to use glass baby bottles instead, and popular brands like Dr. Brown's often offer a glass version of their products. However, glass comes with its own trade-offs: it's easier to crack or break, and it's much heavier.

Your baby needs to like it

Most babies have varying nipple preferences, based on the shape of their mother’s breast, so this measure is a bit subjective. But based on online reviews and our personal experiences, we noticed that certain nipple shapes were easier for most babies to latch onto. Wider, shallower-shaped nipples with a skinnier teat made for an easier experience, especially if the baby bottle's nipple had a little bit of give, just like a mother’s breast might.

You might need colic-free technology

Some baby bottles, Dr. Brown’s in particular, are made with anti-colic vents, which limits the amount of milk your baby can take in and helps to reduce gas or air bubbles in their stomach. Other baby bottles, like the MAM Easy-Start, use other methods to control milk flow and also allow you to 'graduate' to larger nipple sizes as your baby grows. While this isn’t necessary for older babies, pediatricians often recommend this option for infants under the age of 6 months, and especially for babies born prematurely.

You can buy a sampler

Though it’s recommended to not switch up bottles on your baby too often, as it can cause even more frustration, you may need to try out a few to see what works best for you and your kiddo. Start out by purchasing one or two of a bottle type at a time, or register for a bottle box from our favorite baby registry site, Babylist, which has options for both glass and plastic or silicone options.

You’re going to need at least six to 12 bottles

Once you figure out what brand, size and nipple flow you need, stock up—if you’re planning on exclusively bottle feeding, you should plan on having around six to 12 bottles on hand. This ensures that you have enough in case you have to travel, are running late to daycare, lose one in the car, break one, have six sitting dirty in the sink… You get the picture. If you’ll be using bottles less frequently, then three to four is the recommended number, but as with anything that concerns babies, we’re always going to advise having at least one or two extra just in case.

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