Philips Avent Natural Plastic Baby Bottle

If you’re new to the wide world of baby bottles, Philips Avent's Natural plastic baby bottle is one to put on your shortlist. A popular choice with many parents, it's a straightforward polypropylene bottle with only four pieces, including a wide nipple that’s meant to feel like the breast (although it’s not quite as wide as that of some other bottles). Its twin-valve venting system, meant to reduce gassiness from air swallowed during feedings, is built right into the nipple.

Ease of use

The Philips Avent Natural’s wider nipple can be helpful in avoiding drama when switching between boob and bottle, and our hands-on testers confirmed they had no trouble in this area. “Comfort petals” on the nipple increase softness and flexibility, according to the manufacturer, but not so much that the nipple collapses while baby is feeding. Our parent testers all said the nipple held up to their baby’s strongest sucking.

The nipple is available in six different flow rates, so there are lots of options for experimenting to find the one that makes your baby happiest. When we held the bottle upside down for 30 seconds (with the 1+ month nipple), formula leaked out at a rate of about one drop per second, so the flow rate is slightly faster than some of the other bottles we tested. Although one of our parent testers said this nipple's flow rate was perfect for her one-month-old, so you'll want to try it out for yourself.

The bottle’s wide mouth and easy-to-read volume markers make bottle prep simple, and it warms easily in a standard bottle warmer. The travel lid stayed on every time we dropped the bottle, and we didn’t notice any leaks while carrying a full bottle around in a diaper bag.

Because it has so few pieces, the Philips Avent Natural is one of the simpler bottles to put together and take apart. It cleans up easily and the mouth is wide enough that you can clean inside the bottle without much effort (though you're going to want a bottle brush if you opt for the 9 or 11 oz sizes). None of the bottle parts stained when we let them sit overnight in our test mixture of water, dish soap and some spaghetti sauce.

Final word

Our product testers all gave this bottle the highest possible rating for quality and performance, and felt it offered good value. Philips Avent offers some interchangeability between its various systems, so you can transition the bottle to a training cup by adding handles when your little one is ready. Overall, the Natural's classic design and uncomplicated features make it a great option for parents just starting their adventures in bottle-feeding, and its popularity means you can pick it up just about anywhere.