How do you pack powder formula made bottles for daycare?

Rocklandholly

We will be putting our son in daycare in a few weeks.  He has been taking powder formula and we plan on providing premade bottles to daycare.  We use the 8oz Dr. Brown's bottles and I need a cooler bag to hold them.  Most of the bag reviews I've read only hold 3 bottles. Does anyone know of one that holds 4?

 Has anyone started on making the powder bottles and switched to ready to feed? I'm wondering if it will take too long at night to make bottles and if its easier to switch to premade formula...any thoughts?

 Thanks!

KathrynMD

I made bottles the night before and took them in DD's diaper bag. 

Unless you have a really long car ride, you should be find to not have them in the cooler bag.

Pesky

I made bottles the night before and took them.  You can always get a bigger bag if needed but honestly, they were only out between my house and daycare which isn't far so I wasn't concerned.  It would certainly be easier to switch to premade but it's also more expensive.  The time-savings wasn't significant enough to justify the cost for me.

A.Love

What we did with DS is got one of those snack containers with the pour spout (it's divided into 3 sections) from Target. Each section can hold 4 scoops formula, and then the sitter knew to mix one section with the right amount of water and we'd tell her whenever we moved up in oz.

This seemed to be the easiest and freshest way and saved time in the mornings packing the bag.

BC&MM

A.Love:

What we did with DS is got one of those snack containers with the pour spout (it's divided into 3 sections) from Target. Each section can hold 4 scoops formula, and then the sitter knew to mix one section with the right amount of water and we'd tell her whenever we moved up in oz.

This seemed to be the easiest and freshest way and saved time in the mornings packing the bag.

This.

angelame1979

We make the bottles the night before and put them in a regular bag to daycare.  It's only a 10-15 minute car ride so it's fine.  If your drive is longer than 45 minutes to an hour then I would get a back or maybe plan some extra time and make them there if you can or use the premade stuff.  It takes a few minutes to make the bottles each night and by the time they get to my DD's age 11 months you only have to make 2. 

Rocklandholly

Thanks, our daycare is a 3 min drive and a few more minutes walk from home. They told us to provide in a cooler bag, which they would put in a fridge...I'm guessing to help keep bottles seperate, although we will also be labeling them.

angelame1979

Weird.  I can't imagine they are going to have room in their fridge for all those cooler bags but I don't know.  If that's what they are telling you to provide then I would.  Our DC has a little bin in the fridge with the kids name on it to put their bottles and we have to label them all as well. 

WowItsABaby

Lurker here. We bring 3 bottles a day to daycare, but the cooler I use is this one. It's a 6-pack neoprene cooler from BuiltNY. My husband used to use it when he was bringing beer to a friend's house, now we use it for baby bottles. Ah, life.

Anyway- we put 2 bottles in one side and 1 in the other. Then I take them out when we get to daycare to put them in the fridge and the cooler folds up & gets put in his cubby. It's the best solution i've found. 

 

bonnie1870

We are making bottles the night before...it hasn't taken us too long.  We've just gotten through week 4 of daycare and our routine has gotten easier (DH has been a huge help though).  I only have a short commute, so we only need 3 bottles for her.  Sorry, no suggestions on that!

Our daycare will actually mix the formula for you.  I wonder if you could leave the powder with them and just bring in clean/sterilized bottles?  I left a few emergency bottles and premeasured powder with them just in case...

 Good luck!!

Rocklandholly

Unfortunately, daycare won't mix the formula even if we provide premeasured powder.

 Thanks for the Built NY bag suggestion...agree, life changes so quickly!!!

snansley

We prepped bottles the night before using this (so worth every penny) https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Browns-Formula-Mixing-Pitcher/dp/B001I481LM

We use this and it fits 4 Dr. Browns bottles easily. https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3160433

We also put our bottles in a ziploc gallon bag.  Kept us from having leaks into the cooler if we didn't have the travel discs in and the teachers could just toss the dirty bottles in at the end of the day.

Powder formula is good for 24 hrs after mixing so you should be fine doing everything the night before. 

jennkelley08

I have to send DS to daycare with 5 pre-made bottles (enough to get him through the day plus one extra).  I went to my local BRU and found an awesome cooler by BB Chill that holds 6 Dr. Brown's bottles plus and icepack for $14.99 (they're in the section around the diaper bags).  It's a great bag and the only one that I've found to easily fit 6 bottles!

soon2BMrsBama

A.Love:

What we did with DS is got one of those snack containers with the pour spout (it's divided into 3 sections) from Target. Each section can hold 4 scoops formula, and then the sitter knew to mix one section with the right amount of water and we'd tell her whenever we moved up in oz.

This seemed to be the easiest and freshest way and saved time in the mornings packing the bag.

Us too.  I sent a gallon of nursery water and they would just let me know when he was running low.