Is the Dr. Brown's Natural Flow bottle worth it for a gassy baby?
Worth it, if your baby needs the anti-colic help
Why the middle-of-the-night feed feels like a fight
It's two in the morning and your baby is pulling away from the bottle, back arching, little fists balling up mid feed. You know that gulping, gassy squirm too well by now, and you're standing there wondering if it's just newborn stuff or if the bottle itself is part of the problem. That's usually the moment someone hands you a Dr. Brown's Natural Flow bottle and says try this one.
How the Dr. Brown's Natural Flow vent actually works
Every bottle has to let air in somewhere, because a baby can't create a vacuum strong enough to keep drawing milk without air replacing it. Most bottles solve that by letting air bubble backward up through the nipple and straight into the milk your baby is swallowing, which is where a lot of gas and spit up actually comes from. Dr. Brown's answer is a two-piece vent that sits inside the bottle, a straw-like tube that gives air its own private path down to the air space above the milk, away from where the milk is flowing up and out. Air comes in one way, milk goes out another, and the two never mix. That's the whole anti-colic idea in one sentence: less swallowed air because the air isn't traveling through the milk anymore. The Options+ part is the detail worth knowing before you buy. This isn't a bottle you're locked into forever. The vent is designed to come out once your baby is older and feeding well, so the same bottle keeps working as a plain, no-vent bottle instead of forcing you into a second, more grown-up bottle later. That does mean one more small part to wash and reassemble at every feed while the vent's in, and the narrow neck and slow-flow level 1 nipple are built for a young, small mouth, not an established fast feeder.
So you're not really buying a bottle shape, you're buying an air management system, and the bottle around it is just the container. If gas and fussiness during feeds have been the problem, this is the piece designed to solve exactly that. If your baby feeds calmly on whatever's already in the cupboard, the vent is just an extra part to wash.
Who the Natural Flow bottle is for, and who can skip it
Worth it if
- your baby shows gas, spit-up or fussiness during feeds
- you want a bottle that can grow with baby by removing the vent later
- you're easing a breastfed baby onto a bottle and want a similar latch
Skip it if
- your baby already feeds calmly without gas issues
- you'd rather avoid an extra vent piece to wash and reassemble
- you need a faster flow nipple than level 1 right away
If your baby already feeds calmly without gas or spit-up, this is one more part to wash for no real benefit.
The Dr. Brown's Natural Flow bottle verdict
If your baby is gassy, spitting up often, or fighting the bottle mid feed, this is a quiet yes worth trying. If feeding has been calm and easy so far, you don't need to fix something that isn't broken, and a simpler bottle will save you a wash-up step at every feed.
The 3am arching and gas that sent you looking for a different bottle is exactly what this vent is built to quiet down. Day one usually looks like a slower, calmer feed, fewer stops to burp, and a baby who settles instead of squirming halfway through. With tens of thousands of ratings behind it, the general theme from parents leans toward less visible gas and fussiness once a baby adjusts to the vent, though every baby's gut is different. Order it, give it a week or two, and let your baby tell you if it was the right call.
Amazon shoppers rate it 4 out of 5 across 52,586 ratings. That is their number, not ours.
Before you go
How does Dr. Brown Natural Flow bottle work?
The two-piece internal vent lets air enter through a separate channel instead of bubbling up through the milk, so feeding doesn't create a vacuum or push air into what baby swallows.
Can you use Dr. Brown's natural flow without a vent?
Yes, once baby is older and feeding well you can remove the internal vent and use the bottle as a standard nipple-and-collar bottle.
What's the difference between Dr. Brown's Natural Flow and options?
The Options+ line uses the same internal vent as Natural Flow but is designed to let you remove that vent later, so one bottle works both ways.
What is Dr. Brown's natural flow?
It's a baby bottle system built around an internal two-piece vent that manages airflow separately from milk flow to reduce colic-related fussiness.
By the numbers
earn an unconditional yes at full priceOut of 83 baby products we have reviewed. This one is a yes with a condition attached.
other reviews field the same questionWhat's the difference between Dr. Brown's Natural Flow and options?
comes up across our baby coverage, not just here — one of the things worth settling before you choose.
Verdict datasetQuestion indexCC BY 4.0
Full spec sheet
| Capacity | 4 oz / 120 mL |
|---|---|
| Nipple level | Level 1, slow flow |
| Recommended age | 0 months and up |
| Pack count | 4 bottles |
| Neck style | Narrow |
| Vent system | Removable, Options+ |
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