These are by far my absolute favorite bottles. For the price, you just can't beat the quality and longevity. We used these with my first child, who was fed at the breast and by bottle, and we plan on using them for the second. With my first child, I started off using the Medela bottles because I was told they cause "the least nipple confusion," but I noticed my son was very cranky when he would drink from them. Instead of chalking it up to not wanting to take a bottle, I noticed how different the nipple was from a breast. This led me to do a full-scale review to compare the many different bottle options out there. For my comparison, I used the following bottles: this bottle (Tommee Tippee closer to nature), Medela, Philips Avent, Dr. Browns, Spectra, and Munchkin Latch. This bottle yielded the best result for me. The only time I experienced a leak with these was when I was tired/lazy and put the lid on wrong. Otherwise, my son loved these! They were very easy for him to hold do the the hourglass shape, and the variety of nipples were perfect for our needs. We used the slow flow up nipples until 4/5 months, then switched to the medium flow until 8/9 months, then finished off our bottle feeding with the fast flow. His latch on this bottle was immaculate, even better than his latch on my breast if I'm quite honest, due to its size. I loved that these could be washed in the dishwasher, however, it is important to note after so many washes, you might see the measurement marks start to rub off (but this happens with most plastics so was not a huge deal for us). The best part of these was the price; they were the most affordable to obtain between bottle and nipple, and they worked the best. Truly shows you don't need to spend a ton of $ to get a great product. My runner-up/honorable mention bottle was the Philips Avent. We loved this bottle, but it ended up working out ALMOST just as well as this one, so I couldn't justify the high price. Also, the nipples are a bit tricky with the Avent, so you have to match a little notch on the nipple to a notch on the ring -- when you're tired/lazy, the last thing you want to do is a puzzle with bottles. If you don't match this up, milk leaks all over baby. But otherwise, it was a great bottle and wouldn't hesitate to use it if it weren't for the TT bottles. Both the Medela and Dr. Brown's bottles yielded the same issue for me; the nipple was too small, and my son just couldn't get a comfortable latch. Also, with the Dr. Brown's bottles, I know some people swear by them, but there were just TOO MANY PARTS. And if you didn't clean them right, they clogged or just got funky. This was not a road I was willing to continue down. As far as the Medela, I will say they are EXCELLENT for milk storage, and I intend to use them for that purpose with my second child. My son was able to get a nice latch on both the Spectra and Munchkin Latch bottles, but these two leaked so bad, there was no way I could justify using them. The Munchkin Latch started to leak from the bottle after only a few uses, which drenched me and my child in milk. I even replaced the valve to ensure it just wasn't damaged, but it still continued to leak. The Spectra bottles just couldn't get a good seal on the ring with the nipple. No matter how tight or loose you secured it, there were still leaks, so I just ended up using these for milk storage (which they worked a-ok for. Overall, my 5-star bottle pick is the Tommee Tippee. As previously mentioned, for the price you just can't beat the quality. It's afforable, easy to clean, durable, practically leak-proof (when used correctly -- some people really struggle with these for some reason and I cannot for the life of me understand how unless they are vice gripping these tight), and last forever! Highly recommended!
