Munchkin Latch Review

The Munchkin Latch bottle is made by Munchkin a company that designs and manufactures a wide variety of creative and modern baby products that are often budget friendly. Munchkin developed the Latch bottle with the hopes of easing the transition between breastfeeding and bottle feeding. The Latch bottle features two truly unique components - a flexible, accordion-style nipple designed to move with the baby and increase flow as baby puts pressure on the lower part (similar to way mom's breast works) and a one-way blue anti-colic valve at the base of the bottle. The nipple stretches and moves as baby moves which helps maintain the latch and theoretically reduces in the ingestion of air into the belly. This also is supposed to help create a better latch for baby which should ease the transition between the breast and bottle.

Performance Comparison

This chart shows a comparison of the overall scores for the products we tested in this bottle review.The Munchkin bar is blue.

The subsections below provide additional details on what we liked and disliked about the Munchkin that contributed to its overall score.

Likes

The basic concept and design of the Munchkin Latch seems to be one we should like and in theory it is. The Latch scored well in our tests for leaking, because we didn't experience any leaking. However, we do have concerns that the blue valve could become perforated or be inserted incorrectly resulting in leaking, as described by many Amazon users. We do however, like the softer nipple that swivels and bends with baby's position and can move back to baby's soft palette for a more natural latch. The baby's in our tests really did seem to enjoy the more natural latch of the Munchkin bottle compared to the competition, which is no small feat and sometimes all a parent can hope for when it comes to getting baby to accept a bottle in the first place. In our tests this bottle helped create a better transition between the breast and bottle.

We also like the wide mouth opening on the bottle itself which made getting a cleaning brush inside easier, but more importantly made transferring breast milk less risky and resulted in fewer spills (especially with frozen milk). This is a big win in our book as some mothers can struggle to make enough milk and every ounce of milk counts. We also like that this bottle is relatively lightweight, average for plastic options, but lighter than glass, and that it is an easy shape for baby to hold.

Dislikes

While we didn't experience any leaking in our tests, we are worried the design of the anti-colic valve could result in leaking should it become perforated or be assembled incorrectly. In addition, we notice a fairly high number of complaints from Amazon users that their blue valves did leak fairly consistently giving our concerns more merit than mere speculation.

The nipple on the Latch is fairly soft which is a good thing, but the design seems to result in nipple collapse more than some of the competition. This can result in baby losing the nipple and growing agitated trying to feed from a nipple-less bottle. We also found the nipple portion of the bottle is difficult to get seated right on the bottle leading to frustration for parents in the middle of the night when maybe their sleep deprived brains and hands aren't working at their best. It seems like the ridges that help the nipple move and shift in response to baby, also make it hard to put together. No other nipples can be used with this bottle, so if you or baby decide the nipple is a no go, then the entire bottle will also have to go.

We aren't big fans of assembling or cleaning the Latch; it has more parts than some of the other options we looked at and the design of the bottle requires additional cleaning tools over the simple bottle brush most parents expect to buy. While the wide mouth makes getting an ordinary brush inside, the anti-colic valve requires special attention to ensure it is clean and this is best done with the special tool sold by Munchkin for this purpose. This increase the overall cost of the bottle and the time involved in cleaning and maintaining it. Time and money are two things that tend to be limited when your baby arrives, which is why we don't like this feature or need.

Ease of use also suffered for the Latch with a design that requires special instructions to install to ensure it works correctly. We found the instructions overly involved for a bottle and the potential for mistakes is higher than necessary. Making a mistake could influence how well the bottle works and whether or not it leaks. The valve design also means it can't be used with a bottle warmer because the possibility of steam or warming water entering into the bottle is high and not healthy for baby (even though Munchkin sells a bottle warmer, it is not compatible with their only bottle). The overall shape and design is similar to simpler bottles you can use in a warmer and don't require special instructions to assemble. This makes the Latch kind of hassle compared to the competition that scored higher in our tests. This valve will also need to be replaced at regular intervals, which increases the overall cost and continued maintenance of this bottle over the usual nipple replacement.

From the Munchkin website:

We also don't like that this bottle is made of plastic. While the plastic is BPA-free it could potentially still contain other endocrine interrupters and definitely isn't as inert as glass. In addition, nutrients in breastmilk have been known to cling to the sides of plastic bottles unlike glass, thereby decreasing the nutritional content of the breast milk you've worked so hard to achieve. Even if you use the bottle with formula, the plastic can cause more clinging and make it more difficult to clean than glass bottles. This where safety standards for production of plastics are stricter.

Conclusion

The Munchkin Latch bottle might be a good option for babies that are struggling to obtain a good latch with other bottle options, but while the price is about average for plastic bottles, the materials and construction don't seem to warrant the cost for most parents. In the end, we feel this bottle has too many design features that could, or does, cause potential problems that impact performance and ease of use. These features add little for overall functionality, but create the need for additional cleaning and assembly steps that could result in a leaking or poorly cleaned bottle. In addition, the cost for valve replacement in conjunction with nipple replacement increases the cost of using this bottle long term.

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