Glass Bottles vs Plastic: the Pros and Cons of Each

Picking out which baby bottles you want to go with seems like it would be a fairly simple task, but then you find yourself staring at all of the options available and begin to feel overwhelmed. There are so many options to choose from! How are you supposed to know which ones to go with?

Let’s discuss the pros and cons of each option and I’ll share my experiences with both.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Glass Bottles

PROS

• No chemicals – Glass is completely BPA-free. You won’t find the same chemicals in glass bottles that you can be found in plastic ones (though plastic has gotten much better!).
• Easy to clean – Glass bottles are much easier to clean and keep clean than plastic because glass doesn’t scratch, so germs and bacteria have no place to grow. They also don’t stain and it’s easy to see if any residue is left behind.
• Durable – Glass doesn’t break down like plastic, so these bottles can last you a very long time.
• Sanitization – You can heat glass up to very high temperatures without worrying about melting, so you can truly sanitize your bottles.
• Eco-friendly – Glass is easier to recycle and since they last longer than plastic bottles, you don’t need to replace them as often.

CONS

• Heavy – Glass bottles are definitely heavier than plastic ones, which may make it difficult for your baby to hold.
• More expensive at first – Glass bottles tend to cost more up front but in the long run, they will save you money because you won’t have to replace them nearly as often as plastic (if ever!).
• Chance of them breaking – Glass is more fragile than plastic. We use Dr. Brown’s glass bottles and lost one due to me dropping it in the sink without a silicon sleeve on and chipped the bottleneck. That being said, using silicon sleeves definitely helps prevent the glass from breaking. We’ve dropped numerous bottles on our hardwood floors with a sleeve on and haven’t had any issues with them breaking.
• Fewer options – Not as many brands make glass bottles as they do plastic, but you can find a variety on the internet.
• Not readily available – Since there aren’t as many glass bottles available, you’re not likely to find them available in stores. You will probably have to look online.

Plastic Bottles

PROS

• Tons of options – There are so many options out there for plastic bottles! If your baby doesn’t respond well to one, you have many more that you can test out until you find one baby likes.
• More readily available – You can find plastic bottles almost anywhere. They’re available at local and chain retailers, not to mention online.
• Lighter – Plastic is much lighter than glass, which makes it easier for baby to grip and hold their own bottles.
• Less expensive – Plastic bottles cost much less than glass bottles because they are much easier to make.
• Won’t break – While plastic bottles may not last as long as glass ones, they are almost unbreakable, so you don’t have to worry about shattered glass.

CONS

• More chemicals – While pretty much all plastic bottles (and, in general, all plastic baby products) are now BPA-free, they do contain other estrogenic chemicals. When bottles are heated up, these chemicals get into the liquid and enter the body.
• Harder to clean – Plastic is prone to scratches, which can become a nice little home for bacteria to grow in. It’s super hard to clean out these scratches because most of the time, you can’t even see them!
• Less durable – Plastic bottles wear down and get scratched over time, so they don’t last nearly as long as glass bottles.
• Can’t truly be sanitized – Plastic can’t be heated up to the same degree as glass without getting damaged, so you can’t truly sanitize plastic bottles.

I’ve used both glass and plastic bottles, so here’s my experience. With our first born, we use plastic Avent bottles, and they worked great. I had a stash of probably 30 bottles lying around, so we weren’t ever short on bottles. One thing the hubs and I noticed, though, was a residue build-up on them. It didn’t matter how much we cleaned them, after a while, they’d have a film on the inside. When that would happen, we would just throw them away.

With our son, Sawyer, we switched to glass bottles, mainly because my super type-A sister who researches everything like there’s no tomorrow had a baby 7 weeks before he was born. She did a ton of reading on bottles and decided to go glass, so that piqued my interest. She sent me a three-pack of Dr. Brown’s glass bottles to try and honestly, we never looked back.

I have five large, 9-ounce bottles (started at six but one broke…see above). At 10 months old, he has five bottles a day, so this is perfect for us. I clean them every night and we use all of them the next day. No lie, they are so easy to clean. I love them and will continue to use them if we have another baby.

With that being said, make the best decision for YOU! There is absolutely nothing wrong with using plastic bottles or glass bottles. It’s just personal preference.