MAM Easy Start Anti-Colic Bottles, 9 oz 2-Pack

What it is

Two 9 oz (260 ml) bottles built around a vented screw-down base: ventilation holes in the base admit air at the bottom as the baby drinks and a silicone anti-colic valve in the base regulates it, so milk flows without bubbling back through itself and no vacuum builds. Six parts per bottle — body, base, valve, screw ring, flat symmetrical SkinSoft silicone nipple and a cap that doubles as the 20 ml measure for sterilising. This pack ships with Level 2 Medium Flow nipples (2+ months); flows 0 (extra slow) through X are sold separately and all fit the same bottles, and the 5 oz sibling ships with Level 1. BPA/BPS-free, made in Europe, EN 14350 on the pack. The brand’s own rule makes teats a consumable: replace every 1–2 months. The 5 oz pack, the glass version and the Easy Active line are different listings.

Claims vs. reality

“Clinically proven to reduce colic symptoms in 80% of babies.” Read the footnote, the way check #34 read Dr. Brown’s: it resolves to a 2011 Austrian field study (73 mothers of colicky babies) and 2010 US market research (35 mothers) — the pack’s own wording is “80% of mothers confirmed less colic.” That is mother-report with no control group and no published crying-time data, and the one actual clinical study in the pack’s footnotes (Argentina 2012, 34 preterm infants) is about relaxed feeding, not colic. Colic itself is unexplained, peaks around 6 weeks and resolves by 3–6 months with no correlation to breast vs. bottle feeding (AAFP) — so switches at peak misery improve on their own schedule. The vent’s mechanical job is real, and owners do report less gas and spit-up; the sentence as printed is not earned.

“Self-sterilising in 3 minutes, sterile for up to 48 hours.” True — the strongest verified claim in this check, and unique in this library. Wash first, stack the parts with 20 ml of water in the base (body resting on top, not screwed down), microwave 3 minutes for one bottle (up to 8 for six) at 500–1000 W, cool 10 minutes, and a bottle left stacked stays disinfected up to 48 hours (brand manual, read in full). Babylist names it its Best Self-Sterilizing Bottle for Travel. The price is procedural: exact water volume, a clean microwave, never run dry.

“94% nipple acceptance.” A market-research tally (2009–2022, 1,643 babies), not a trial. The flat nipple’s acceptance file in owner pools is genuinely strong — bottle-refusers taking it when round nipples failed — but BabyGearLab scored the nipple 5.0/10, and a peer-reviewed flow study (Pados et al., 2016) measured this line’s Level 1 as the most variable flow of 26 nipples tested (CV .37). Start newborns on Level 0 and judge by the feed, not the box.

Safety & recalls

Real reviews — what owners say

Amazon’s family pool for this pack runs ≈4.8/5 (pricehistory.app’s record for this ASIN: 9.6/10 across 7,617 reviews; variant-shared pool — mirrors read up to ~19,700, flagged in the full check); Target’s cleaner pools read 4.6/5 across 96 (5 oz 2-pack) and 4.4/5 across 1,311 (5 oz 3-pack). Praise: nipple acceptance by babies who refused rivals, less gas and spit-up after switching, a bottom that unscrews so there is no blind interior to scrub, and self-sterilising on trips. Complaints, in order: leaks from the base when the valve/base assembly is rushed — the spine of every pool, and the lab hit it too (BabyGearLab overall 46/100, #13 of 14: Leakage 5.0, Nipple 5.0, Cleaning 4.0); measurements — the opaque base hides everything under 2 oz and the print wears off in months (Babylist’s file agrees); flow surprises — too-fast Level 1 reports and one box labelled 0 containing a 1; and slow warming through the thick base.

Price & FSA/HSA

$13.38 at Amazon (Oct 20, 2026) for the pinned 9 oz 2-pack — tracked low $10.81; the $20.41 “average” and $57.26 high are marketplace-listing artifacts, and ~$13–$18 is the real band. Target corroborates the system’s pricing: 5 oz 2-pack $12.99, 5 oz 3-pack $19.49, single 5 oz $7.59; Babylist’s 5 oz 4-pack runs from $29.99. Running costs are replacement nipples as flow steps up, teats on the brand’s 1–2-month replacement rule, and spare valves — offset by never buying a steriliser, bags or tablets. At ~$6.70 a bottle it lands beside Dr. Brown’s commodity pricing (check #34) and ~$9 under Comotomo’s 2-pack (check #86).

FSA/HSA: not eligible — the FSA/HSA Store eligibility list states baby-bottle reimbursement is not eligible, and IRS Publication 502 covers pumps and lactation supplies while excluding feeding bottles. The pump is eligible (checks #18, #84); the bottle you feed from is not, even when it sterilises itself.

The verdict

WORTH IT IF… sterilising is a daily tax in your house or you travel with bottles — the self-sterilising base is real, verified in the brand’s own manual and crowned by Babylist for travel — and you want a vented bottle whose bottom unscrews for cleaning, at a commodity ~$13 per 2-pack, with a nipple that picky babies demonstrably accept. The conditions: you retire the headline on day one (the 80% colic figure is mother-report surveys, n=108, not a clinical trial; persistent inconsolable crying goes to the pediatrician, not a second bottle system); you learn the valve assembly, because leaks and lost venting are the same rushed step failing two ways; you don’t track ounces precisely (markings start at 2 oz and fade); you start flow by the baby, not the box; and you budget teats every 1–2 months. Not worth it if: the colic sentence is the purchase (no bottle earns it); precise intake tracking matters (marked glass — check #35); or a six-part assembly ritual will fail at 3 a.m. (check #86’s three-part Comotomo is the simpler, best-tested machine).