Customer Reviews

Philips AVENT BPA Free Infant Bottle Starter Set

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

These bottles do indeed leak, unless you can figure out the 'trick'... It really ought to be documented from the manufacturer.

This is what I do:

Fill up the bottle with formula (or milk), make sure the edge of the bottle is clean. Now wet the nipple (the inside rubber part) thoroughly (this is the 'trick'). When you screw on the nipple, go slowly, make sure it's straight on, and don't over tighten. With the wet nipple, you can sort of feel (and hear) when it gets a good seal, it's sort of a "suction" noise.

I hope this helps.

For my newborn we decided to buy the original Avent bottle system and were completely happy with it! That is until Avent removed the original bottles and replaced them with the LEAKY bpa-free ones! So now we have 6 original and 6 bpa-free bottles. This is painful to deal with. There is clearly a design flaw with the new bottles! It's like the bottles are warped and the rings don't screw on clean and easy! So, Initially I thought that I wasn't screwing the caps on tight enough. What a misconception! Tight or loose, those bottles continued to leak! Avent needs to accept responsibility for this shortcoming and replace our bottles!!!

Wish I could give this product ZERO stars...

Please do yourself a favor and go with another brand, On any given day 1 out of 3 bottles leak. Originally I read all the negative reviews and thought that people were just installing the nipple incorrectly, however I was sadly mistaken. A leaky bottle might not sound like that much of an issue, but try dealing with a wet sticky baby at 3am in the morning.

There is a serious design flaw with these bottles and Phillips Avent will not address or accept fault. Their customer service is terrible, putting the fault on the consumer. Phillips has lost me as a lifelong customer and I will ensure that all my friends and family will steer clear of such a shoddy product and shady company.

I have since switched my bottles out to Born Free and have not had 1 leaky bottle incident.

If you do decide to go with these bottles I hope you have better luck than I and the many other people did.

For our first baby born in July '07, we used (and loved) the original Polycarbonate Avent bottles the first few months. Then the BPA paranoia overtook us, and we switched to Born Free bottles, which are made of honey-colored Polyether Sulphone (PES). The Born Free bottles worked well enough, but we hated the 2 extra complicated parts per bottle that we had to clean. For our second kid born in Sept '09, we wanted badly to switch back to Avent, but read poor reviews of the PES BPA-free Avent bottles (apparently they leaked for many users). Fortunately, right around that time, Avent introduced a second line of BPA-free bottles made of the cloudy Polypropylene (PPE), and initial reviews indicated that Avent fixed the leaks (by adding a simple removable collar between the bottle and nipple). After 1 month of using these new PPE Avent bottles, I can attest that they indeed don't leak, and I don't need to take special care or do any procedure to make them leak-free. They just don't leak. Yes, the newly added collar is an extra part to clean, but at least it's a simple part that's easy to clean. So for all you Avent fans out there, take heart! Avent fixed the leaks. Tip: the leaky PES honey-colored bottles come in yellow-colored boxes. The new leak-free PPE cloudy bottles come in blue-colored boxes. Buy the blue-colored boxes.

As Michelle from Denver points out, there is a knack...most people don't read the manufacturers instructions because they're thinking 'what could be so hard about using a baby bottle...?' We've been using Avent bottles for over 13 years (8 children) and thankfully my husband DID read the 'tiny print' instructions.

What Michelle says is right - make sure the teat is fitting snugly, whatever you do DON'T OVERTIGHTEN (otherwise you'll cause a vacuum effect - that's when the bottles leak), there should be a 'nitch' on the white part of the screw top piece, line this up with your baby's nose, you should hear a whistling sound as the milk flows out and is replaced by air. I hope this helps.

I have never had a problem with leaking. I have the yellowish BPA-free PES ones as pictured here. Didn't like the extra ring in the newer polypropylene ones. It seems like the problems with leaking are caused when people don't follow instructions, but honestly, I can't say that I have any particular method; I just don't overtighten and make sure it is on straight. This is a general principle that applies to any threaded/screw-on thing--gas cap, mason jar lid, pipes, baby bottle lid... I love these bottles. I love the whole Avent system. I love that these bottles fit directly onto the breast pump, that you can put these in the freezer with a sealing disc in the same ring you use to hold on the nipples, that you can get different flow nipples, that everything is interchangeable no matter what size bottle, that they are so wide, and that you can get no-spill spouts and handles to convert these bottles into sippy cups. I've never used another bottle so I can't say whether they are superior for gas reduction or not. But it's a great system. We wash most of the parts in the dishwasher with the extra sterilizing rinse. I don't do the silicone parts in the dishwasher because they come out feeling greasy.

I suggest anyone considering these find a different product. Avent has developed a bad solution to a problem that has been successfully solved by their competitors - how to make a baby bottle that doesn't leak around the bottle/nipple seal. Honestly, these things are awful. There is nothing less fun than having a hungry infant in your arms while you're struggling with a leaky bottle and cleaning up the mess it caused.

Avoid these.

Always make sure that the nipple is wet before you insert it into the ring that fits onto the bottle. Also, do not tighten the ring too much. If you follow these two simple steps, you will prevent leakage every time. I love these bottles--they are great at venting air and preventing baby from swallowing bubbles, yet they have very few simple parts which along with the wide mouth makes them easy to clean. They also look good and now they are even BPA-free (they weren't for my fist baby). What's not to love?

NB--the rules about wetting the silicone parts of the bottle in order to prevent leakage are also valid for the Avent sippy cups--just make sure the silicone valve or the actual spout are wet before assembling.

We have used the Avent bottles for 6 months now and we are completely satisfied with them. The bottles are well made and easy to clean. The nipples are available in different flow rates from very slow to very fast so you can meet the needs of your baby as he grows. The wide base of the nipple is great compared to most bottle designs and is really helpful if you are using the bottles with a baby that is breast feeding.

Several reviews mention leaks. If you wet the inside of the nipple before you screw it on the bottle (as the instructions state) you will have no problems. In six months I have had a bottle leak maybe 3 or 4 times and simply screwing it back on solved the problem.

I would highly recommend this product and would purchase it again.

You get two 4oz. bottles and two 8 oz. bottles, a formula container (which is cute but useless at this point) and a bottle brush (also cute but doesn't work for cleaning the breastpump parts), but on the other hand it is good value if you consider that you get the nipples and the bottle rings as well. My baby is two and a half months and I only use the 4 oz. bottles Philips Avent BPA Free Breast Milk Storage Set with Philips Avent Silicone Nipples, 2 Pack. I gave it five stars for value.

Update:
With this set you get the newborn nipples (mentioned above) which are good until you baby can handle the Philips Avent Slow Flow Nipple which are the nipples my baby uses since he was three months old (he start refusing the bottle when the newborn nipples were to slow for him). I will start using the formula container as a regular container (it has a removable divider that makes three separated spaces inside) when my baby starts eating solid food, so the value of this set is worth more than 5 stars!