Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Before I review the product itself, please note: ***This 250ml bottle comes with a size 3 mo.+, medium-flow nipple!*** I originally ordered this bottle along with a separate set of med-flow nipples, thinking the bottle came with a slow-flow nipple. Fortunately, Amazon has great customer service and refunded me for the extra set since the size is nowhere in the description. SOME BACKGROUND: My baby has been exclusively breast-fed for most of his first 5 months with the exception of his first couple of weeks since he was in the NICU. We had been meaning to bottle-train him for one of his feedings to not only allow us some flexibility, but also for emergency situations (if something happened to me, etc.). However, I blinked and 5 months few by and we still had not introduced a bottle. We first tried Avent bottles because my oldest used them with no problem, and we already had them. While he tried to suck on them, his "technique" was just awkward on the bottle: he just gummed the nipple and sucked in a whole lot of air at the sides of his mouth. And after all that work, he still didn't end up drinking any of the milk. Then we tried the Adiri bottles, which just provoked his rage and frustration. He would try gum down on the "nipple mound" (much like babies do on the real breast to compress the milk glands) but the mound was too hard and the nipple itself was too short. Not wanting to go down the way of trying 20 more bottles, I began researching different types, and looking for one that was as close to breastfeeding as possible. It came down to the Mimijumi or the Comotomo. Both have excellent reviews, but only one looks really creepy... So I went with the Comotomo bottles. These are very-thoughtfully designed bottles that mimic the breastfeeding process as closely as a manufactured product can. My son screamed his head off the first time we tried this bottle, whimpered the second time, and guzzled the milk the third time. As when any bottle, it will take time to get them used to a completely different way of getting their food. However, some bottle features make the transition easier/possible. THE NIPPLE: * Large, wide "nipple mound" (Don't know what else to call it!) makes contact with baby's cheeks, tip of nose and chin, much like a real breast. This was not only tactilely appealing, but it allowed for a sealed latch and prevented unnecessary air from being ingested. * While the mound is soft and pliable, the actual nipple and the base area surrounding it is even more so. This allows baby to gum and compress the milk out of the bottle, and also allows for the nipple to be flattened and sucked further into baby's mouth. Just like the real thing! * Two vents siphon out extra air so that baby doesn't ingest it. Nonetheless, my baby still had enormous burps after bottle-feeding -- much more so than when he breastfeeds. * Nipple locks into the ring tightly, and we have had absolutely no issues with leaking. THE BOTTLE: * The bottle is pliable and can be squeezed to mimic a "let down" effect or to get a sleepy baby re-interested into feeding. This is a great feature! * Subdued design. This was why I chose the Comotomo over the Mimijumi, which really looks like a boob-on-a-bottle...I just couldn't do it. * The oz. markings are a little too subdued -- it is really hard to read the measurements. I can live with this because the rest of the bottle is so awesome. * No crevices for the milk to get stuck in. * Easy to clean. The only thing I wish Comotomo did was have the body of the bottle angled, like the Mimijumi. When it gets down to the last sips, you have to angle the bottle up; however, because the mound part of the nipple is so big, it pushes more into baby's nose -- since they need to breath while eating, you have to either recline your baby even more or you might have to forgo that last sip or two. This is slightly annoying since the rest of the bottle is so well-thought out. Oh well. UPDATE 1/6/2012 Okay, after using these bottles for a little longer, I changed my 5-star rating to 4-stars for the following reasons: * The frosted-color of the body (as mentioned before) make the oz. markings very difficult to see. This only slightly bothered me before because I was so thrilled that my baby was taking the bottle well. However, after a few weeks with using the bottle, this issue is becoming more annoying. I don't have the time to keep peering and straining my eyes to see how much liquid I am putting in the bottle. I can especially see this as problematic for those who are trying to measure out formula. In the middle of the night. When you are pretty much a zombie. * The frosted body also prevents you from seeing how much your baby has drunk. I like to pull the bottle away from baby as soon as he has taken the last sip to prevent unnecessary air ingestion, but I cannot see when this happens due to frosted-style. In order for you to see how much your baby has drunk you have to sort of shift him/her around to try and see the liquid level -- not the best thing to be doing if your baby is starting to doze off. So the past few times my baby has been sucking air at the end, and I didn't know it. Why couldn't Comotomo make their bottles CLEAR and with VISIBLE OZ. MARKINGS?? It may not look as cool, but this mom wants practical over cool. * Someone mentioned that the nipples don't have the size marking on them (i.e. slow-flow, medium, fast). I checked mine, and they don't! They all look the exact same. Yikes! * Also, the company stamped all the nipples with "Comotomo" in raised lettering on the nipple...right where the baby's lips would be if he/she had a wider latch. The lettering is on two opposite sides of the nipple, and the other areas next to it are the vents. It doesn't seem to bother my baby, but I can imagine some baby being bothered by the feeling of either the lettering or vents. Just FYI.