The 8 best baby bottles for 2021

1. Best baby bottle: MAM Easy Start Anti-Colic Bottle

“MAM bottles are the best. I think it's the shape of the teat which helps a baby to latch onto the bottle without gulping in too much air.”

“MAM bottles were excellent for my colicky baby.”

Universally beloved by parents far and wide, this clever little bottle is self-sterilising, leak-proof and surprisingly budget-friendly.

The super-soft silicone teat has been designed with a flat shape intended to mimic the nipple when breastfeeding. A vented, removable base prevents the baby from swallowing too much air, and the self-sterilising function is great for travelling or for families with smaller kitchens.

A curved, ergonomic design with plastic bubbles for grip will help your baby to hold on when she’s ready, and the wide neck and clear volume markings, in both millilitres and fluid ounces, will prove a lifesaver in the bleary hours of the night.

In our solidity tests, the MAM Easy Start Anti-Colic held up brilliantly, emerging unscathed from being scrubbed with a new sponge and dropped repeatedly on a hard floor. Tipped upside down, the bottle only dripped a small amount of liquid (so won’t flood the cot when dropped) and it didn’t leak at all when tipped sideways or carried in a nappy bag.

Safety-wise, you don’t need to worry. The plastic bottle, base and lid are all made from BPA- and BPS-free plastic, and the teat is hygienic silicone, which doesn’t taste of anything and won’t degrade. The different teat sizes prevent too fast a flow, which eliminates any choking risk, and the plastic bubble design means it can be filled with boiling water and held without burning the fingers.

Available in 160ml or 260ml sizes, and in a range of colours and five teat flow rates, the MAM Easy Start Anti-Colic Bottle is adaptable over time as your baby grows. It’s compatible with the MAM manual and electric breast pumps too, including the MAM 2-in-1. All that and it’s one of the most inexpensive on the market.

Pros

• Teat intended to mimic breastfeeding
• Anti-colic function for babies suffering from colic
• Microwave- and dishwasher-safe

Cons

• Can leak if the top or bottom isn’t screwed on properly
• Extra parts make for longer assembly

Specs

• Materials: BPA- and BPS-free plastic and silicone
• Age range: From birth
• Teats: Sizes one to three for babies, then X (cross cut for faster flow) and non-spill (for self-feeding toddlers)
• Bottle sizes: 160ml and 260ml

2. Best baby bottle for breastfed babies: Lansinoh mOmma Baby Bottle

“We tried every bottle on the market then found the Lansinoh mOmma after a recommendation. It worked.”

Sturdily made with an exceptionally well-designed teat, the Lansinoh mOmma is, quite frankly, indestructible. There, we said it.

Made from solid PP plastics, its squat, curved shape feels comfortable in the hand. It doesn’t show any damage after being scrubbed with a sponge, and it doesn’t drip at all when held upside down or sideways or dropped onto a hard floor. Your little destructor will have no chance.

But it’s the silicone NaturalWave® teat that’s the mOmma’s big selling point. Designed to promote a baby’s natural peristaltic tongue movement when sucking, it’s beautifully soft and well shaped. Anecdotally (in reviews and on the Mumsnet forums), it’s a brilliant bottle to introduce to a breastfed baby, especially if that baby has refused other bottles before.

Wide-necked and with clear ml/fl oz markings that won’t fade with repeated washing, it’s easy to make up at any time of the day or night. It fits in the vast majority of electric and microwave sterilisers and, with three parts (bottle, teat and collar), it’s quick to take apart and hand wash too. Just be aware that if you put it in the dishwasher on lasagne night, it will start to take on a rosier hue.

The plastic is BPA- and BPS-free, as is the silicone, so you can rest easy on that score. The air ventilation system in the teat is intended to reduce the amount of air swallowed by the baby and the teat is available in three different flow rates. The bottles also come in 160ml and 240ml varieties, and both are compatible with Lansinoh’s breast pumps, including the Lansinoh Compact.

If you’d rather reduce the plastic content, Lansinoh have an identical model in glass, which scored equally well in our tests, showing no damage when dropped or pushed over. It’s more expensive than its fully plastic counterpart, but it’s easier to clean and, of course, more eco-friendly.

Pros

• Robustly made and clearly marked
• Three-part design is easy to put together, take apart and clean
• Vented teat prevents baby from swallowing air

Cons

• Will discolour in a dishwasher with tomato sauce
• Glass version is more expensive than the plastic

Specs

• Materials: BPA- and BPS-free plastic and silicone
• Age range: From birth with size one teat
• Teats: Sizes one to three
• Bottle sizes: 160ml and 260ml

3. Best budget baby bottle: Philips Avent Natural Baby Bottle

“Our first two children had Avent bottles and they were great.”

Competitively priced for supermarkets and starter packs, the Philips Avent Natural isn’t just an emergency stand-by – it performs well long-term too.

If there comes a point in your parenting life where you make an emergency supermarket dash for new bottles, the Philips Avent is likely what you’ll find on the shelf. While it’s not the most innovatively designed or highest performing product we tested, this upgrade on Philips’ original Classic design isn’t nearly as basic as its price tag would suggest.

Firstly, the teat. The Philips Avent Natural has been designed, as most bottles are, with breastfed babies in mind, incorporating soft ‘petals’ in its wide base to make sucking easier and more intuitive. A twin valve in the teat and collar lets air into the bottle, reducing the amount your baby could swallow.

The teat comes in four well-signposted flow rates, from newborn to 12 months, and bottles come in four sizes. The Natural bottle is available by itself and in a variety of starter packs, and is also compatible with Philips breast pumps, such as the Philips Avent Manual Breast Pump, and some of their toddler drinking cups. Check the cup accessories are compatible with Natural teats, not Classic, before you buy.

The BPA-free plastic is solid, so the bottle doesn’t feel cheap, and it doesn’t scratch or break when scrubbed or dropped from a height. It’s also dishwasher-safe. Be aware, though, that it does drip quite a bit when held upside down and it will get hot on the outside when filled with boiling water, so watch out for grabby older babies.

Aesthetics-wise, it’s a minimalist design that also comes in pink and blue with easy-to-read volume markings and a simple screw-on collar that can be assembled and disassembled in just a few seconds.

Pros

• Robust and long-lasting
• Easy to read, take apart and put together

Cons

• Drips significantly when held upside down and gets too hot to touch when filled with boiling water
• Isn’t compatible with all Philips toddler cups
• Teats only intended for up to 12 months

Specs

• Materials: BPA- and BPS-free plastic and silicone
• Age range: From birth with newborn teat
• Teats: Four sizes (newborn, 0 months+, 3 months+ and 6 months+)
• Bottle sizes: 60ml, 125ml, 260ml and 330ml

4. Best eco-friendly baby bottle: Pura Kiki Infant Bottle

“Thinking about environment, this is a plastic-free bottle with a really long life span. Just change the teat and you get a water bottle. Unbreakable.”

As eco-friendly living becomes ever more important, the eye-catching stainless steel Pura Kiki is a great – if somewhat limited – stride in the right direction.

Many families are trying to use more sustainable or recyclable materials in their home. But how to do this with baby equipment, which is almost universally made from hygienic, shatterproof plastics? Enter the Pura Kiki, one of the only completely plastic-free baby bottles.

It’s a striking looking design: a stainless steel bottle that comes in three sizes with a neon-bright silicone insulating cover, a steel collar and a silicone teat. The best news is that the same bottle can be used with a toddler drinking spout, a sports-bottle spout or a lid for snacks (all purchased separately), making the Kiki useful all the way to adulthood and beyond. Accordingly, the steel parts come with a lifetime warranty so you won’t be adding to your local landfill any time soon.

As a sustainable design, the Kiki ticks the right boxes. But it’s been created with a whole lifetime in mind and that lack of focus on the infant feeding stage sometimes shows. The teat, while it has an anti-colic vent and does come in two flow rates (slow and medium), is somewhat inflexible and plasticky, especially in comparison to the Lansinoh or the MAM models.

The volume markings are engraved on the inside of the bottle – not easy to squint at in the middle of the night – and, of course, the bottle isn’t compatible with any breast pumps and can’t go in a microwave steriliser. As a stainless steel pioneer in a plastic ecosystem, the Kiki won’t always fit in.

It’s safe and well made, however, and created with high-grade, hygienic materials. Assembling and disassembling is quick and easy, and all parts are dishwasher-safe. For an older or easy-going baby, it’s a great, responsible buy – long-lasting, unbreakable and, even in its hot pink colour, impeccably green.

Pros

• Completely plastic-free and eco-friendly
• Exceptionally robust
• Lifetime warranty

Cons

• Can't be sterilised in the microwave
• Leaks a fair amount when tipped upside down
• Inflexible teat better suited to older or unfussy babies

Specs

• Materials: Stainless steel with a silicone sleeve and teat
• Age range: From birth
• Teats: Slow flow teat (newborn) and medium flow teat (three months onwards)
• Bottle sizes: 5oz, 9oz and 11oz

Price: £17.99

5. Best baby bottle starter kit: Hegen PCTO Feeding Bottle

“We've just had our second child and, this time, we've gone for the Hegen bottles. They're fab! They work as bottles, storage pots, food pots for weaning and water bottles for older children. Well worth the money.”

It’s at the expensive end of the bottle market, but this high-quality, long-lasting model feels genuinely innovative – and it’s better value when you buy more than one.

Four-year-old baby brand Hegen has already made a splash in the baby equipment market since their 2015 launch. Their flagship bottle, the Hegen PCTO (Press to Close, Twist to Open) is more expensive than those from more established brands, but here’s the thing – it’s also really good.

Made from extra-tough PPSU plastics (usually used for medical appliances), the bottle is an unusual ‘soft square’ shape. It’s supposed to be easier for a baby to grip, but it also stacks neatly, one within another, when it’s empty and takes up less room than round containers when it’s full and stacked with others.

As the name implies, the collar presses on with a click and is removed by twisting, which in practice is quicker and easier than the more common baby bottle twisting mechanism. The teat has to align in a particular way with the collar, which caught our tester out a few times initially, but otherwise assembly and storage couldn’t be easier.

The teat is super-soft silicone, designed to be slightly off-centre so that babies can be fed from a more upright position, protecting them from recurrent ear infections. It’s also vented to minimise air swallowing and comes in four flow rates.

The materials proved to be robust in use, coming out unscathed from being scrubbed with a new sponge and dropped on the floor. Tipped upside down, the teat drips a little initially but then stops completely. In the hand, the Hegen feels like a high-quality, almost luxurious bottle – reliable, leak-proof and indestructible, which is reassuring when expressing that precious breast milk.

Parents are encouraged to use the same bottle for expressing, storing and feeding milk to your baby, although this requires the purchase of additional accessories. Bottles come in three sizes, both compatible with a manual breast pump attachment for the Hegen pump.

Expressed milk or snacks can be sealed in the bottles using flat storage lids. There are also compatible drink spouts for adults or older children to use. You’ll save money buying packs of two or four. Or, if you’re feeling especially flush (or have a generous relative), the Complete Starter Kit will set you up with lids, teats and breast pump adaptors for four bottles in two different sizes.

Pros

• Innovative soft square shape makes holding, cleaning and storage easier
• Extra-tough bottle material is almost impossible to damage
• Off-centre teat designed to feed in a more upright position

Cons

• Pricey
• Teat has to be in a particular position for correct assembly, which can be confusing

Specs

• Materials: BPA- and BPS-free plastics and silicone
• Age range: From birth with a slow flow teat
• Teats: Slow, medium, fast and thick
• Bottle sizes: 150ml, 240ml and 330ml

Price: 240ml bottle for £19.95 and starter kit for £96.95

6. Recommended buy: Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature Bottle

“I like the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles.”

This entry-level crowd-pleaser continues to be a bestseller. Widely available, brilliantly inexpensive and supported by the vast Tommee Tippee ecosystem.

The Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, just provide a decent bottle experience at a price affordable for most families. On those terms, it continues to succeed very well – it’s available at a huge variety of retailers, including most supermarkets, and six medium-sized bottles will set you back no more than your fortnightly nappy bill.

More good news – the wide bottle neck and built-in collar and teat make it easy to assemble and make up a feed. It’s dishwasher-safe, it's compatible with the Tommee Tippee range of breast pumps and sterilisers – also widely available and relatively inexpensive – and its curved shape makes it equally easy to hold and to hand wash.

It’s available in three sizes and four teat flows, making it easy to personalise. The teat has an anti-colic vent and is designed to help the transition between breast and bottle.

It’s not as sturdy as its more expensive rivals, including the Lansinoh and the Hegen. Volume markings started to come off during our sponge scrubbing test and the drop test made a large mess on our tester’s kitchen floor. The BPA-free plastic also feels a little thinner than other bottles, which makes it hard to hold when very hot.

But for a bottle on a budget? Its continued ubiquity and popularity speak for themselves. The Closer to Nature does a really decent job, even if it might not be with you for the long haul.

Pros

• Comes in a large variety of colours and sizes
• Dishwasher-safe and compatible with most sterilisers

Cons

• Less robust than more expensive competitors
• Silicone teat is not especially soft or innovatively designed
• Fell apart when dropped on the floor

Specs

• Materials: BPA- and BPS-free plastics and silicone
• Age range: From birth onwards with size one teat
• Teats: Size one, two, three and vari-flow
• Bottle sizes: 150ml, 260ml and 340ml

7. Recommended buy: Twistshake Baby Bottle

“The Twistshake comes with a little formula container which is handy when feeding on the go. It also has a shaking ring for even mixing.”

Strikingly designed in an array of colours, prints and materials, this new bottle should brighten up anyone’s kitchen and last forever too.

Swedish children’s brand Twistshake have produced their take on a baby bottle and it’s a solidly made, aesthetically pleasing model that’s easy to use and gratifyingly inexpensive.

Designed with an extra-wide neck for easy cleaning and filling, it also comes with a formula powder tub (which can be stored inside the bottle when not in use) and a ‘mixer net’ component to mix the powder and water without clumping. Our tester was unconvinced about the value of this addition, but a bottle made with breast- and formula feeding in mind might be useful if your baby is combination fed.

The bottle is made from a tough, BPA-free plastic, but also comes in stainless steel and glass models as well as a variety of cool patterns and colours, so you’re bound to find one that suits you.

Twistshake bottles come in three sizes and teats in four flow rates. Once your baby gives up bottle feeding, there’s a toddler spout and a straw for children and adults available to buy separately. The teat comes with an anti-colic air valve and is fairly soft and flexible.

In practice, our tester found that the Twistshake was very robust, standing up well to scrubbing and dropping on the floor, but she did think that the straight-edged bottle shape might be hard for a smaller baby to grip.

Safety-wise, it’s made from high-grade, hygienic materials, and is dishwasher- and steriliser-safe. Though if you have the stainless steel model, remember not to sterilise it in the microwave. It’s not compatible with any breast pumps, unfortunately – often a downside of equipment from newer brands.

Pros

• Good quality BPA-free plastic
• Comes with a container for formula if combination feeding
• Dishwasher- and steriliser-safe

Cons

• Less support and compatibility than other bottles
• In the white model we tested, measurements were also in white, so not easy to see when the bottle was filled with milk

Specs

• Materials: BPA- and BPS-free plastics, and silicone
• Age range: From birth onwards with the small size teat
• Teats: Small, medium, large and extra large
• Bottle sizes: 180ml, 260ml and 330ml sizes

8. Recommended buy: Tommee Tippee Advanced Anti-Colic Bottle

“Tommee Tippee worked great for all three of my children.”

Tommee Tippee’s anti-colic bottle is as widely available as its Closer to Nature counterpart – and, despite the extra functions, it’s still within reach of most family budgets.

Almost all baby bottles now include some kind of anti-colic function – usually a valve to let out air bubbles or to help the air bypass the milk. Some bottles, however, have been specifically designed to help colicky babies and, of these, Tommee Tippee’s model is almost certainly the most budget-friendly.

Made from BPA-free plastics and fairly soft silicone, the bottle includes an air-removal system comprised of a straw, a venting wheel and a star-shaped valve. The idea is that air is sucked through the straw and released harmlessly at the bottom of the bottle, preventing it from entering the milk. As an added bonus, the straw is heat sensitive, turning pink when the feed is too hot.

The silicone teat is quite soft, wide and flexible, which should help to maintain the baby’s latch. Just be aware that, while they look very similar, Advanced Anti-Colic bottles must be used with Advanced Anti-Colic teats, and can’t be swapped with the Closer to Nature kind.

The bottle comes in two sizes and three colours, and the teat can be bought in four flow rates, with the slowest suitable from birth.

With a six-part assembly, it takes longer to put together and take apart than other, simpler models, but this is fairly standard with anti-colic bottles. There’s a small cleaning brush provided to clean the venting straw and plenty of guidance online to help you get used to handling it. While the plastic is thinner than some models on the market (the Lansinoh, say, or the Twistshake), it held up well under our scrubbing and dropping tests. As part of the Tommee Tippee range, it’s compatible with all their breast pumps and sterilisers too.

Colic is so individual and so unfathomable that we can’t advise on whether this bottle would help your baby. But the Tommee Tippee Advanced Anti-Colic is well made, reliable and affordable, which is an excellent place to begin.

Pros

• Hardwearing with easy-to-read volume markings
• Heat-sensitive straw tells you when the milk is ready to drink

Cons

• The teat is not as soft and flexible as some – and while the wide teat base works for some babies, others prefer narrower shapes
• The six-part design is a faff to clean, sterilise and reassemble

Specs

• Materials: BPA- and BPS-free plastics and silicone
• Age range: From birth with a zero months plus teat
• Teats: 0 months+, 3 months+, 6 months+ and vari-flow
• Bottle sizes: 160ml and 260ml