Even if you intend to exclusively breastfeed your infant, you may find you'll need to supplement with a bottle occasionally. Or if father is needed to handle feeding duties when mom's not around, you'll need a bottle. For those times -- or if you are bottle feeding all the way -- Dr. Brown's Baby Bottles are the only bottles you'll want to use. We found these Bottles to be absolute lifesavers, and have recommended them without hesitation to other new parents who have immediately confirmed our experiences with them: less gas, colic and other feeding-related unpleasantness.

The secret to Dr. Brown's Baby Bottles, apparently, is the tube system inside -- it prevents the infant from swallowing air, which makes for a happier baby (and by extension, happier parents). As baby eats and the bottle drains, the internal tube directs incoming air to above the bottle contents, so the young one's not working against a vacuum. This is supposed to be easier on their eardrums, too. Make of it what you will, but we've managed to avoid the ear-infection boogeyman which seems to hit nearly every other young family we know. Also, unlike similar systems that use collapsing bags to keep out the vacuum, you don't need to keep a supply of the little bags around.

The only downside I can see to Dr. Brown's Baby Bottles is that there are more parts to clean - the nipple, ring, rubber disk/valve and rigid tube inside. (The FAQ says you need to use their nipples. We never tried any others when we were using them so I don't know if you can use others.)