Is Comotomo worth the hype?
When it comes to your baby—glass bottles might not be your cup of tea. And that’s 100% okay. Silicon is much more style too. I love how much easier/lightweight silicon bottles are for my babies to hold and I appreciate that they are a dishwasher-safe solution without all the BPA/BPS/BPF worries. Plus, it’s always nice to feel at liberty to toss my diaper bag across the room without wincing at the possible shatter risk. Up until now, I’ve stocked up on a couple different silicon bottle brands: Olababy (sometimes the seal tended to leak), Boon (struggled a bit with flow) and the Nuby (I was obsessed with the straw until my friend accidentally nuked it in her microwave while tending the kiddos).
And then that oh-so-friendly friendly Amazon Prime algorithm gave me a suggestion: Comotomo. It was a brand-name I’d heard from a handful of friends, and I’d seen the bottles gifted at swarms of baby showers. For the sake of exploration, I bought two of the 2-packs (one 5oz and one 8 oz. version) and decided to give it a go. My bottles arrived in June—and I’m writing this blog about 5 months later. So I’ve had a handful of months to simmer on how I felt.
Pros: Comotomo bottles are a heaven-sent solution if your baby tends to be a bit gassy. I've tried a handful of vented bottles before, but there's something about Comotomo's dual vents and nipple flow that makes for a magical combination. I'm also tempted to think the bottles mimic the natural "let-down" vibe my baby expects from a breastfeeding session. I'm guessing this is probably because the flow is also determined by how squeezable the bottle is? When she first latches onto the bottle I tend to squeeze the bottle more at the start and then I just loosely hold it after that.
My OCD nature loves how painless these bottles are to clean. The super wide mouth is a brilliant design element! Tiny-mouthed bottles designs are just not very functional and just silly in my opinion. It was liberating to toss out my three baby bottle brushes and have my minimalist single-sponge back in the sink.
If your modern self cares about design, then you'll also love how the bottles look with that matte texture. Although, I should mention the top-heavy design does tend to fall over easier. When sealed with the newborn nipples, my Comotomo wouldn't leak at all (even if I held it upside down and shook it hard). But when I switched to the 3-6 months nipple I noticed a couple drops constantly leak out of the top when the bottle falls over. Also, FYI, you do need to make a conscious effort to seal the bottle tightly though (but hey, I always do that with any bottle — so I wasn’t anticipating anything different).
I also am a big fan that the Comotomo nipples do not collapse when the baby drinks. I had a couple other brands consistently collapse (and it was frustrating for both baby and mom). After my 5 months Comotomo test, I never had a single nipple collapse on me. Woot! Woot!
Things to Plan For: Like any bottle brand, are a few cons to making the Comotomo switch, so you might want to see if any of these would be a deal breaker for you. First off, I noticed around month 2-3 of using the dishwasher, the nipple of the bottle started to get a bit cloudy (which can be a bit annoying). The bottles haven’t yellowed at all though and that (for me) was a big win.
Also, if you aren’t used to using transparent silicon bottles, it’s a bit trickier to read how much your baby has successfully swallowed. My fingers are crossed Comotomo will make a version of their bottles with some contrasting marks in the future, because this one aspect makes night-time feedings a bit tricker. Also, Silicon (in general) has a tendency to be sticky. If your diaper bag has some lint or crumbs in the bottle pocket, you just might pull out a bottle in public that has something momentarily stuck to the side (gasp). It's nothing that a good ole' brushing off can't fix, but it's just a quirky aspect I noticed with my bottles.
Comotomo bottles are wider and shorter than your standard brands out there (it’s one of the reasons why these bottles are so wonderfully easy to clean) but you’ll need to expect a tighter fit in most diaper bag pockets that were designed for typical bottle sizes. My Comotomos still fit in my Freshly Picked bag (but it was something I’m glad I anticipated beforehand).
Last but not least, Silicon does act like an insulator. Meaning, it’s wonderful at keeping warm milk warm, but it does add an extra 5+ minutes to my average bottle-warming time. Note: I warm up my bottles with the Kindee Kozi (those times might differ with a different warmer).
Have you found a silicon bottle you just adore that I haven’t tried out yet? I’d love to hear about it! Let me know in the comments below.
