The Best Baby Bottles (and Bottle Brush)

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There are now updated models of our long-time Also Great bottle picks, the Philips Avent Natural and Philips Avent Anti-colic. This guide links to the original bottles we tested in our last round of testing. We’re planning a new round of testing in 2024. Feeding Nipples

The Best Baby Bottles (and Bottle Brush) | Reviews by Wirecutter

There’s no single best baby bottle, and finding the right one for your baby can take trial and error and a lot of patience.

After 30 hours of research, including interviewing bottle-feeding specialists and pediatricians and testing 17 bottles, we’ve concluded that the Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding Bottle is the bottle we’d try first.

This bottle has a gently sloping nipple, a shape that experts told us worked well for many babies. With only three pieces and a wide mouth, it’s simpler to use and easier to clean, and it leaked less than most others we tested.

The Philips Avent Natural bottle comes in more sizes than any other model we tested; it also comes in glass. With only three pieces and a large, easy-to-screw-on collar, it’s simple to use and didn’t leak in our test. But the very wide nipple may not work well for all babies.

Some babies may prefer the Philips Avent Anti-colic design’s slightly narrower nipple shape, though it could still be too wide for others. The Anti-colic bottle is a bit taller than the Natural, but it’s still one of the simplest to use and clean, and the least leaky.

Traditional narrow-nipple bottles can be a good choice for newborns and young babies. Like most narrow bottles, this one isn’t fancy, but it is one of the few bottles of this type that come in both plastic and glass, and unlike many narrow bottles, it is usually available for purchase online.

This brush worked up a better lather and was easier to fit into narrow-neck bottles than others we tested.

The Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding Bottle's silicone nipple is wide but designed with a gentle slope, a shape that bottle-feeding experts say many babies can latch onto effectively. It’s one of the simplest bottles we tested, with only three pieces, and the sturdy, wide-mouth container leaked less and was easier to clean than most of the other bottles we tried. It’s also affordable, and it’s currently one of the best-rated bottles on Amazon, with a 4.7-star rating (out of five) across thousands of reviews. After reading dozens of discussions on popular Facebook groups dedicated to infant feeding, we found that parents often report being satisfied with this choice.

If you want more size and nipple options, or if you are interested in glass bottles, the Philips Avent Natural and Philips Avent Anti-colic bottles may be a good choice. Similar to our main pick, these models are among the simplest bottles we tested, and they didn’t leak in our tests. The parts for each are also interchangeable. But the Natural’s wide nipple may pose latching problems for some babies, especially younger ones. The Anti-colic has a narrower nipple (the Natural and Anti-colic nipples and collars work on both types of bottle). Both the Natural and Anti-colic are among the most popular and highly rated bottles, and are as affordable as our main pick.

Experts say many newborns and small babies do well with traditional bottles that have narrow nipples, which are the right size for little mouths to get a good latch. You won’t find a lot that differentiates these basic bottles, but the Evenflo Classic + Vented is a good choice to try first because it’s the only narrow model in our test group that comes in both plastic and glass, which some parents may appreciate, and it is easier than others to purchase online. The container of the plastic version is made of thinner plastic and feels flimsier than our other picks, though, and the volume markers are harder to read. Narrow bottles can be more difficult to clean by hand, as it’s harder to fit a sponge or brush inside the neck. Know that buying simple narrow-neck bottles at a local drugstore or grocery store can be an equally good option, and that the nipples and collars for basic narrow bottles tend to be cross-compatible, even between brands, so it’s easy to mix and match.

This brush worked up a better lather and was easier to fit into narrow-neck bottles than others we tested.

Baby bottles and all their parts need to be scrubbed clean after each use. If you have a dishwasher, and a big enough supply of bottles to wash just once a day, that can be the easiest way to keep them clean. For many people, however, bottle feeding involves a lot of bottle washing by hand. We tested four baby-bottle brushes and found that the OXO Tot Bottle Brush with Stand fit more easily into the narrowest bottles, worked up more suds, and was easier to grip than the competition. It’s also the only brush we tested that has a mini-brush attachment for cleaning the tips of bottle nipples.

To research this guide, I corresponded by email and spoke by phone with Amy Peterson, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) who co-authored (with Mindy Harmer, a speech-language pathologist and infant-feeding specialist) Balancing Breast & Bottle, a book with research and guidance on breastfeeding and bottle feeding. I also spoke to Susan Burger, PhD, also an IBCLC, who has advised many parents on choosing and using bottles for their babies as part of her lactation-consulting practice in New York. Peterson and Burger gave us general guidance on bottles; they don’t endorse any specific brand.

To learn about nutrition and other concerns surrounding bottles and bottle feeding, I talked to Dr. Anthony Porto, a pediatric gastroenterologist and professor at Yale School of Medicine, and co-author of The Pediatrician’s Guide to Feeding Babies and Toddlers; and Dr. Charles Wood, a professor of pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine who has studied the connection between bottle size and weight gain among formula-fed infants.

I read articles in medical journals about the design of bottles, how babies feed from them, and nipple flow rates. I also read comparative reviews of bottles on sites like BabyGearLab and BabyCenter, and dozens of discussions related to choosing and using bottles on Facebook groups for breastfeeding and formula-feeding mothers, including Exclusively Pumping Mamas, Formula Feeding Mommies, and Breastfeeding Mamas.

I’m a senior editor and former research editor for Wirecutter, and I have written guides on nursing pillows and pumping bras, among others. I’m also a mom with four kids whom I breastfed and bottle fed when they were babies. (One baby refused all bottles outright, so I understand some of the frustration and unpredictability that can accompany bottle feeding.)

The experts we spoke to were clear: There is no single best baby bottle. “There are no absolutes in choosing a bottle. What works for one baby may not work for another,” Amy Peterson, co-author of Balancing Breast & Bottle, told us.

Many factors may influence what bottle works well for your baby, including your child’s age, development, size, mouth shape, and suck pattern, and how often they feed from a bottle. Though some babies take to bottles easily, for others, finding the right bottle requires patience, trial and error, and a learning curve.

Bottles themselves are surprisingly complex. As a 2010 article about infant bottles in a nursing journal notes: "The variations within and between an individual manufacturer's products include the shape of the nipple, the size of the nipple, the type of nipple hole (single or cross-cut), the milk flow rate (slow, medium and fast), the shape of the bottle (standard, curved or angled) and the venting system used to reduce the entry of air into the system."

We approached this guide with the aim of recommending bottles that would be good first tries for parents getting started with bottle feeding their babies. If our picks aren’t right for your baby, take a look at some of the other bottles we researched and tested in the Competition section.

Accordingly, our experts told us they advised against buying a large quantity of any single type of bottle before knowing whether the bottle actually works. “We recommend that parents buy several types of single bottles, and wait to buy a feeding system until they know which nipple shape works best for their baby,” Peterson told us. “Try a bottle and give it some time,” Dr. Anthony Porto said.

If you already have a bottle that you and your baby like, and your baby is feeding well, you probably have no reason to change. “If the baby is comfortably feeding, don’t mess with it,” Susan Burger advised. If you pump breast milk for your baby, trying the bottles that came with your pump is a good place to start. If your baby ends up liking those bottles, you’ll have the convenience of pumping directly into them. (Some of the bottles we recommend in this guide are also compatible with certain breast pumps.)

This guide is intended as a general introduction to bottles. We focused our research and recommendations on bottles for babies who are healthy and don’t have special feeding issues, developmental differences, or other medical concerns. If you’re having difficulty feeding, talk with your pediatrician. Lactation consultants and speech-language pathologists can also provide help with bottle-feeding problems.

First, here’s some background on the basic design of bottles, how babies drink from them, and some of the terms and claims on bottle packaging.

All baby bottles have the same basic parts: a container, a ring or collar, and a nipple. Bottles also typically come with caps (to cover the nipple to keep it clean and prevent leaks during transport).

The shape of the container is dependent in part on the shape of the nipple (narrow nipples require narrow containers; wide nipples go with wide-mouthed containers) but can also be tapered, indented, or angled. Almost all the bottles in our test group have volume markings.

You’ll find three basic shapes of nipples:

Narrow nipples, sometimes called “traditional nipples,” have a smaller overall diameter and a gradual slope from the tip to the base. Amy Peterson and Susan Burger both told us that narrow nipples were often the best choice for newborns. Narrow nipples fit on narrow-necked bottles (typically about 1.4 inches in diameter). These thin bottles can be convenient to store in the fridge or a diaper bag because they take up less space, but they may be harder to clean since you can’t fit your hand or a sponge inside them.

Wide nipples are much broader and have a more abrupt angle from the tip to the base of the nipple. They fit on wide-mouth bottles, which have a larger opening (typically about 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter), making them easier to reach inside to clean than narrow bottles. Wide nipples are often marketed as being “breast-like,” “natural,” or “just like Mom,” but the wide shape and abrupt angle can actually be more difficult for some babies to latch onto.

Gradually sloped nipples have a wider base than narrow nipples but make a gradual transition from the tip to the base. Both Burger and Peterson told us that gradually sloped nipples could work well for many babies. “One that has a gradual slope is better for helping babies to open their mouth really wide and also have their tongue stroking on the bottle,” Burger said. Peterson noted that since some gradually sloped nipples don’t have a specific spot for the baby’s lips to rest, it’s important to make sure the baby stays deeply latched and doesn’t slip down the nipple during feeding. Gradually sloped nipples fit on wide-mouth containers, so they offer the advantage of the larger opening and easier cleaning. Our pick uses this type of nipple.

You’ll also find specialized nipples, such as so-called “orthodontic nipples,” which are not symmetrical and have angled or specially shaped tips; these designs are meant to address specific feeding issues. As Burger advised, these nipple shapes can cause problems for babies who are breastfed. We didn’t test specialized nipples for this guide.

Regardless of their shape, nipples are available with multiple flow rates, which refers to how fast the milk comes out of the nipple. All the nipples we found offered at least three flow-rate options; some offered up to six.

No industry standard governs flow rates. What one company calls its slow-flow nipple may end up being markedly faster or slower than another bottle maker’s slow-flow nipple. Several studies, including one published in Peterson and Harmer’s book, report wide variability in how fast milk flows from different nipples with slow-flow designations. (Peterson and Harmer’s study found that one company’s slow-flow nipple was actually 11 times faster than another company’s.)

The only way to tell which flow rate is right for your baby is to observe how your baby feeds. “There’s been no research to show that the baby needs a different flow rate at a different age,” Burger told us.

Despite the claims of many bottle makers, there’s no clear evidence that bottle feeding is a cause of colic, or that using any particular type of bottle can do anything to prevent it.

Almost all bottles also have some sort of venting system, which consists of openings that let air flow back into the bottle while your baby sucks, preventing a vacuum. Many companies claim their venting systems are “anti-colic” or “reduce gas,” which stems from the belief that letting air flow through the milk will introduce air bubbles, and that swallowing air can make babies gassy, prone to spitting up, or fussy and colicky. (Both Burger and Peterson told us that the connection between swallowing air during bottle feeding and colic is overstated.)

Venting designs include internal straws that shunt air to the back of the bottle, vents in the bottom of the bottle meant to direct the airflow away from the milk, or tiny holes in the nipples, which let air in but don’t direct it in any special way, which is the method that all of our picks use. “There’s no data really saying that any of these are better,” Dr. Anthony Porto said. Some studies report that babies fed from bottles with certain venting systems display fewer symptoms of colic, but most such studies have been sponsored by bottle companies. A 2015 article in American Family Physician that reviews medical studies on colic states that the cause of colic is unknown, and that it occurs at equal rates in babies who breastfeed and bottle feed. So, despite the claims of many bottle makers, there’s no clear evidence that bottle feeding is a cause of colic, or that using any particular type of bottle can do anything to prevent it.

Many bottles say they are specially designed for breastfeeding babies, mimic breastfeeding, are “just like Mom,” or look, feel, or function like breasts. “There is no evidence to support [the idea] that a breastfed baby needs a special bottle,” Peterson told us. “There is not a single bottle on the market that mimics breastfeeding.” In fact, as Peterson and Burger both pointed out, bottles that are frequently promoted as being “best for breastfeeding” are often difficult for babies, especially newborns, to latch onto correctly.

Many people are concerned about the materials used in baby bottles. Almost all baby bottle nipples are made from silicone (latex is another possible material, but we found that it was mostly used for disposable nipples). Bottle containers can be made from plastic (typically polypropylene), glass, or silicone. The collar and additional venting systems can be made from plastic, silicone, or a combination. The Food and Drug Administration banned the use of BPA in plastics used to make baby bottles and children’s drinking cups in 2012, so you don’t have to worry about searching for packages that say “BPA-free.”

To determine which bottles to test, we made a list of every bottle we could find on sites like Amazon, BuyBuy Baby, Babies“R”Us, Target, and Walmart, ending up with more than 30 bottles made by nearly 20 companies. Based on what we learned from our research and conversations with experts, we determined that a good first bottle should have several attributes.

Easy to use and clean: The experts we spoke to said it’s best to start with bottles that have simple designs. You don’t know which bottle will work for your baby, so you may as well lead off with one that has fewer parts to assemble, clean, and keep track of. Reading dozens of posts on popular infant-feeding Facebook groups, scanning hundreds of owner reviews for bottles, and talking to parents we knew led us to an obvious fact: Busy parents and caretakers appreciate a bottle that is easy to clean.

Available in both small and large sizes: You should get a bottle that matches the amount of milk your baby drinks in an average feeding. Newborns and younger babies typically consume only 2 to 3 ounces per feeding, while bigger babies may drink 6 ounces or more at a time. Feeding a small quantity of milk from a too-large bottle means you’ll have to tip the bottle at a steeper angle to keep the milk pooled in the nipple reservoir, which can be awkward and uncomfortable. Some research (PDF) has shown that young infants who are fed formula from bottles that are bigger than 6 ounces gain weight more rapidly than those fed from smaller bottles. On the other hand, using a bottle that is too small means you may have to refill the bottle before your baby is satisfied. We considered only bottles that offered small sizes (5 ounces or smaller) as well as large ones.

Leak-free: We found that one of parents’ biggest complaints about bottles is leaking. This is another reason to start with bottles that have simpler designs—the more pieces and openings a bottle has, the more opportunities it has to leak. A bottle that is simple to assemble may also leak less, since you’re not as likely to make a mistake putting it together.

Affordable: “Paying more for a bottle does not always result in a better latch. Sometimes the less expensive bottles create a great latch,” Peterson told us. Since you may have to try multiple bottles before landing on the one your baby likes, it’s best to start with less expensive bottles. We focused mainly on bottles that cost under $10 each.

Able to swap parts: Some bottle brands offer models with different nipple shapes or that come in both glass and plastic, with pieces that are all interchangeable. That means you can swap the nipples and collars between bottles, and if you change styles, you can still use your original containers, nipples, or collars. While this isn’t the most important criterion in choosing a bottle, we gave extra points to bottles that offered this flexibility.

We narrowed our list by focusing on the bottles that had the highest star ratings and number of owner reviews on Amazon and other retailer sites, ending up with 17 plastic, glass, and silicone bottles that we decided to test. All the bottles in our test group come in multiple sizes, and for the most part, we opted to test the small to medium sizes (4- or 5-ounce volume) and “slow flow,” “newborn,” or “0–3 months” nipples.

We first assembled and disassembled each bottle to assess how difficult each model was to put together.

We then tested the accuracy of the volume markings for each bottle by placing it on a digital scale, filling it with water, and confirming that the weight of the water (in grams) matched the printed volume markings for both milliliters and ounces.

Next, we mixed up powdered infant formula and blue food dye (to make the liquid easier to see) and filled each bottle with about 2 ounces of the mixture. We held each bottle at an approximately 45-degree angle for one minute to assess whether liquid dripped from the nipple, and at what rate. Peterson told us that dripping nipples weren’t necessarily a problem for a baby, and weren’t a sign that the flow rate was too fast. Dripping nipples are more of a mess issue than a feeding issue, and we assessed this to see how much a bottle might leak if overturned in a diaper bag or on a table, for example.

We also tested how likely each bottle was to leak around the collar (where the nipple attached) and from the vents. We pinched the nipple closed and shook, swirled, and turned each bottle for one minute. While agitating the bottle, we noted whether any liquid leaked from the vents or around the collar, and then we unscrewed the collar to see if liquid had seeped from the nipple to the inside of the collar and neck of the bottle.

We didn’t test any of these bottles with babies. Whether we recruited 10 or 100 babies, it would be nearly impossible to control for all the variables (also, babies can’t fill out surveys).

We scrubbed each bottle and its accompanying parts with a bottle brush to check how hard they were to clean. After they dried, we inspected each one to see if traces of blue were still visible, which would indicate whether any parts were especially hard to get clean.

Finally, for glass bottles, we tested their durability by dropping them on a concrete floor at varying heights: 27 inches, 60 inches, and 72 inches.

We didn’t test any of these bottles with babies. For the reasons described above, whether we recruited 10 or 100 babies, it would be nearly impossible to control for all the variables that could affect how an individual baby responds to a certain bottle at a given time (also, babies can’t fill out surveys). Instead, we looked at dozens of discussions about bottle choices on several active Facebook groups and read hundreds of online owner reviews to assess which bottles parents say work best for their children.

The Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding Bottle, formerly called the Lansinoh mOmma Bottle, has a gently sloping silicone nipple (a shape that works well for many babies, and that we found easier to clean than other shapes), a simple three-piece design, and a wide-mouth container, all of which make it a good bottle to try first. It didn’t leak and was easier to clean than most of the other bottles we tested. It’s also one of the best-rated bottles on Amazon, currently with a 4.7-star rating out of five across thousands of reviews, and it’s one of the least expensive bottles we tested. And to be clear, despite its name, it works equally well with formula.

The Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding’s nipple has a gently sloped shape that gradually flares from the tip to the base. While no single nipple shape will work for all babies, both of the bottle experts we spoke to identified this general shape as one that they had seen encourage a successful latch. Its nipple is notably firmer than most of the other nipples we tested, while remaining flexible. It’s noticeably easier to push this nipple into the collar successfully, whereas softer nipples tend to collapse or bend.

The Breastmilk Feeding is one of the simplest bottles we tested, with only three pieces: a plastic container, a collar, and the silicone nipple (for venting, the bottle relies on a small hole in the base of the nipple). This straightforward design makes the bottle easier to assemble and keep track of than competitors with multiple small pieces. We found that the nipple was the easiest to clean of all the nipples we tested, as the gradual slope from the base to the tip meant that the inner portion of the nipple was wide enough for us to clean easily with a fingertip or a small brush. Due to its shape and slightly firmer texture, this nipple was the only one we could turn inside out easily, which also allowed for simpler cleaning. The entire interior of the nipple is smooth, without ridges, rims, or protrusions, which also makes it easier to clean and creates fewer surfaces for residue to collect.

The Breastmilk Feeding is one of only a few bottles we tried that aced our shake tests (there was no noticeable liquid in the collar after our vigorous shaking), and we didn’t spot any leaking from the small vent in the nipple base, either. Often available for around $5 a bottle, it’s also one of the least expensive bottles we tested.

Gradually sloped nipples may not work for all babies; Amy Peterson pointed out that some babies’ lips may slip down while feeding from a nipple shaped like the Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding’s, so it’s important to make sure they can stay deeply latched. The most common complaint about this bottle comes from parents who find the flow rates too fast for their baby. There are three flow rates available: slow, medium, and fast. This is typical for the bottles we tested, though some bottles have four, five, or six flow rates. This bottle comes in only 5- and 8-ounce sizes (only a couple of bottle makers among the group we tested sell bottles that are smaller or larger than those sizes, though). Since this guide was first written, Lansinoh added an 8-ounce glass version of this bottle; we have not tested it.

Though we think our main pick is a better starting point for most people, the Philips Avent Natural and Philips Avent Anti-colic are good choices if you want more size and nipple options, are interested in glass bottles, or have already discovered that the Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding Bottle is not a good fit for your baby. Similar to our main pick, the Philips Avent bottles are among the simplest bottles in our test group, and they didn’t leak in our tests. But the Natural’s wide, more steeply sloped nipple may not be as easy for some babies, especially younger ones, to latch on to as the gradual sloping nipple on our pick. The Anti-colic bottle has a narrower nipple but still a fairly abrupt angle from the tip to the base. That said, our experts agreed that these nipple shapes could work just fine, depending on the baby.

Both the Natural and Anti-colic bottles are among the most popular and highly rated models; they cost a bit more than our main pick. The Natural and Anti-colic nipples and collars work on both types of bottle, so if you buy one or more of each, you’ll be able to mix and match bottles and nipples in any combination that ends up working best for your baby. The Philips Avent bottles can also attach directly to our breast pump pick.

The Natural bottle comes in several sizes: 4, 9, and 11 ounces for plastic and 4 and 8 ounces for glass, the most options of any bottle we tested. The Anti-colic bottle comes in three sizes: 4, 9, and 11 ounces. We tested the Natural glass bottle against three other glass options and found that it was durable enough to be practical but not unbreakable: It survived drops onto concrete from 27 inches, but shattered when we dropped it from 5 feet. The plastic and glass Natural bottles use the exact same nipples and collars, which is a benefit if you’re interested in trying glass but don’t want to use it exclusively.

Like our main pick, both the Natural and Anti-colic bottles have only three pieces (venting happens through small openings at the edge of the nipple). In our leakage tests, they performed as well as the Lansinoh, with no noticeable seeping into the collar after a minute of vigorous shaking. The containers were as easy for us to clean as the Lansinoh design, with a similarly wide-mouth opening that could fit a sponge or a bottle brush.

Both the Natural and Anti-colic nipples come in five flow rates, more than the Lansinoh nipple, which offers only three. Though Philips Avent doesn’t advertise the components this way, in our testing we found that the Natural nipples and collars fit on the Anti-colic bottles, and vice versa, without causing any noticeable performance issues. Though you’ll probably want to use the containers and nipples that go together, this adds flexibility and practicality if you end up purchasing both types of bottle, since you don’t have to keep them strictly segregated.

As Amy Peterson and Susan Burger told us, newborns and small babies often latch well on traditional, narrow-neck bottles that have narrow nipples. (Such narrow nipples are smaller in diameter overall and have less of a difference in diameter between the base and the tip.) Narrow-nipple bottles tend to be basic, without extra features or special designs that differentiate one from another. They’re also inexpensive, and the nipples and collars from different brands are often cross-compatible, so it’s easy to mix and match. After surveying postings on message boards and infant-feeding Facebook groups, we found that wide-mouth bottles, like our other picks, appeared to be more popular than the best narrow-neck bottles, as well as sturdier and easier to clean. But if you want a narrow bottle, we found after testing three top models that the Evenflo Classic + Vented is a good choice.

Like our other picks, this Evenflo bottle consists of only three pieces and is simple to assemble, clean, and use. It’s the only narrow-neck bottle in our test group that comes in both plastic and glass (as well an angled version), and it’s easier to purchase online than most similarly shaped bottles. It didn’t leak in our tests. However, the container is made of thinner plastic and feels flimsier than our other picks, and the volume markers are much harder to read. Narrow-neck bottles in general are harder to clean than wide-mouth bottles like the Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding and Philips Avent Natural and Anti-colic.

This brush worked up a better lather and was easier to fit into narrow-neck bottles than others we tested.

You can wash all the picks in this guide in the dishwasher, but unless you have a big supply of bottles, you’ll likely wash yours by hand some of the time. After scrubbing bottles with four popular brushes with different designs, we recommend the OXO Tot Bottle Brush with Stand as the best for cleaning containers, nipples, and other bottle pieces. The OXO’s brush head is fuller than that of the other brushes we tried, and in our tests it made more suds and scrubbed bottles more thoroughly than the competition. Though the bristles are generous, they’re still soft enough to squish into narrow-neck bottles. At 12 inches long, the OXO brush is a more practical length than other brushes we tried, including the shorter Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow Bottle Brush or the IKEA Medelvåg, which is impractically long at 17 inches.

The OXO has the most substantial handle of any of the brushes we tested, which allows for a more comfortable and secure grip even when you’re wearing dishwashing gloves. The OXO is also the only brush we tried that has a separate mini-brush for cleaning nipples and other small pieces (it screws into the handle, which has a small window so the mini-brush stays ventilated while not in use to prevent mildew).

The OXO is one of the best-rated bottle brushes on Amazon, with a 4.8-star rating (out of five) across thousands of reviews. It also comes recommended by several parents on the Wirecutter staff, who have used it with good results. And at its usual price of around $10, it’s accessible and affordable enough to replace regularly. There is one downside, though: Some parents reported that the brush fell apart after a few months of use, which makes sense given its price but is less than ideal.

We picked the OXO and the other brushes we tested based on a fairly informal scan of the Amazon best-sellers page for bottle brushes (which honestly began as an effort to find tools to clean the baby bottles during testing), and that limited research led us to try this model and other popular options with varying designs and materials. In the future, we may look at bottle sponges as well.

How do you know if a bottle is right for your baby? Besides the obvious signals that your child doesn’t like it—crying, outright refusal—there are some signs to look for when trying a new bottle. (Babies are individuals, and will bottle feed in their own unique way. The following is general guidance from the experts we spoke to and other infant-feeding resources.)

In general, your baby should be able to latch deeply onto the bottle nipple, with their lips resting on the base of the nipple and not just around the tip. If your baby is swallowing regularly, is able to gaze at you, and has a relaxed body, they’re probably feeding comfortably. A baby who is not feeding comfortably may look concerned, swallow irregularly, or breathe rapidly.

As mentioned above, there’s no industry standard for nipple flow rates, and the appropriate flow rate for a baby doesn’t always correlate to their age. “Because of individual differences in sucking, it can't be assumed that every newborn needs to begin with a slow flow rate,” states a 2010 article on bottles and nipples in Nursing for Women’s Health. Some signs that a nipple’s flow rate is too fast for your baby include choking, tongue thrusting (to try to stop the flow), unlatching from the bottle, and milk leaking from the sides of the mouth. Signs that the flow rate is too slow include fussing and sucking so hard that the nipple collapses. You can also slow the flow rate by supporting your baby upright or semi-upright, and holding the bottle at a more horizontal angle when you feed.

You can wash all our picks (including the containers, nipples, and collars) in the dishwasher or by hand.1 Either way, you should wash them with soap and hot water after each use, and allow them to dry thoroughly. You should regularly inspect all bottle parts for mildew, and check nipples for signs of wear or damage.

For tips on heating breastmilk and formula, see our guide to bottle warmers. All our bottle picks will work with either of our bottle warmer picks.

While we think the bottles above are good choices to try first, your baby may end up preferring a different bottle entirely. Many parents have to introduce multiple bottles before finding the one that works best for their baby, and sometimes babies need different bottle shapes and nipple styles as they get bigger.

Joovy Boob: Joovy is the only brand we found that offered the same bottle in three materials: polypropylene, PPSU (a more durable plastic), and glass. All three bottles have the same nipple shape, which is slightly longer and taller than the Lansinoh Breastmilk Feeding nipple. The Boob bottles have a removable plastic and silicone ring that serves to vent the bottle, which is an extra piece to wash and keep track of. We also found that some of the volume markings on the glass Joovy were inaccurate. The plastic Joovy leaked during our tests. Joovy’s bottles come in 5- and 9-ounce sizes for the polypropylene and PPSU options and 5- and 8-ounce sizes for the glass.

Comotomo Natural-Feel Baby Bottle: The popular Comotomo has an egg-shaped, flexible silicone container, along with a silicone nipple and polypropylene collar. Some people may find the soft, pliable bottle appealing, and it’s one of the easiest to clean, since you can fit your entire hand inside the wide opening. Some babies may have a hard time latching onto the wide and abrupt nipple, though, and the bottle teeters on a narrow base. The Comotomo bottle comes in 5- and 8-ounce sizes.

Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow Wide-Neck Baby Bottle: Many people are familiar with Dr. Brown’s bottles for their internal venting system, which looks like a plastic siphon that sits inside the bottle. The venting system is meant to keep air separated from the liquid inside the bottle, but it requires two extra pieces with narrow tubes that need special cleaning (the bottle won’t work if you remove the venting system). This Dr. Brown’s bottle leaked in our tests, and leaking is a common complaint in owner reviews. The wide nipples have an abrupt transition from the tip to the base, but aren’t as wide overall as the Comotomo and Philips Avent Natural nipples. This bottle comes in 2-, 5-, and 9-ounce sizes.

Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow Options Wide-Neck Bottle: You can use this bottle with or without the venting system. It uses the same nipples as the Natural Flow Wide-Neck, but different collars. It’s available in glass; that version was the most durable glass bottle we tested, surviving drops onto concrete from 6 feet up with no chipping or breakage. The bottle comes in 2-, 5-, and 9-ounce sizes.

Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Bottle: This popular bottle has a wide, abruptly transitioning nipple similar to that of the Philips Avent Natural. It didn’t leak in our tests. It comes in 5- and 9-ounce sizes, fewer than our pick, and only in plastic.

Playtex Baby VentAire: This bottle has a two-piece venting system, with a ventilated cap and a separate silicone plug that screw into the bottom of the bottle. The bottle itself is angled; the design is supposed to help keep the nipple horizontal and slow the flow rate during feeding, but it also means you have to hold the bottle a certain way. The nipples are shaped similarly to the wide nipples of the Dr. Brown’s bottles, with an abrupt transition from the tip to the base, but relatively narrow overall. This bottle comes in 6- and 9-ounce sizes.

Lifefactory Baby Bottle: This glass bottle (which comes with a protective silicone sleeve) had the narrowest nipple of any bottle we tested. It was one of the most durable glass bottles we looked at, surviving falls from 6 feet with minimal chipping (we removed the silicone sleeve for testing). The volume markers are hard to read, and the bottle is among the most expensive we tested. It comes in 4- and 9-ounce sizes.

Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow Options Bottle (Narrow): This plastic bottle has the same removable vent insert as the Dr. Brown’s Options Wide-Neck. It’s more durable than our narrow-bottle pick, but also more expensive, and we think most people will be better off starting with a simpler bottle. It comes in 2-, 4-, and 8-ounce sizes, as well as a glass version which we did not test.

NUK Gerber First Essentials Bottles: These basic narrow bottles are very similar to our main pick, and are a good option if they’re less expensive or more readily available to you. They come in 5- and 9-ounce sizes.

Recommendations vary for how meticulously you need to clean baby bottles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, for example, say to use a dedicated basin for washing all bottle parts to avoid bacteria in the sink. As reported in The New York Times, the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer says you need to sanitize baby bottles in boiling water or the microwave, as long as the water you use to wash them is clean enough for drinking. You may need to take additional precautions if you have a premature or immune-compromised baby. Ask your pediatrician for guidance.

Amy Peterson, IBCLC, email and phone interviews, December 5, 2017

Susan Burger, IBCLC, phone interview, November 27, 2017

Anthony Porto, MD, professor, Yale School of Medicine, phone interview, November 1, 2017

Charles Wood, MD, professor, Duke University School of Medicine, phone interview, October 30, 2017

Donna A. Dowling, PhD, RN, and Laura Tycon, Bottle/Nipple Systems, Nursing for Women's Health, February 1, 2010

Jeremy D. Johnson, MD, MPH, Katherine Cocker, DO, and Elisabeth Chang, MD, Infantile Colic: Recognition and Treatment, American Family Physician, October 1, 2015

Juliet Spurrier, MD, The Best Baby Bottles of 2017, BabyGearLab, September 22, 2017

Courtney Schley, a senior editor covering sleep and appliances, has been at Wirecutter since 2014. She has held several roles at Wirecutter, including research editor, as well as supervising editor of baby and kid coverage.

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The Best Baby Bottles (and Bottle Brush) | Reviews by Wirecutter