Breast Milk Storage: 8 Ways to Keep Milk Cold and Protected at Home and On-The-Go

Are you planning to travel soon and trying figure out the logistics of keeping your breast milk or formula cold?

Do you plan to pump at work and need to keep your milk cold both at work and on the commute?

I hope this post save you a little time and energy in considering your options!

In the fridge, your milk and formula should stay in the back, away from the door and entry points that are subject to temperature fluctuation. If you are leaving the house and need to bring breastmilk or pre-made formula with you, here are a few suggestion to keep it cold!

1. Freezer Totes

Check out PackIt’s Breastmilk and Formula Cooler or bottle pack. These products are great because the entire thing is actually freezable.

2. Insulated Totes

Use an insulated bottle pack and ice packs. Skip Hop has a great double bottle tote, but if you need more room check out this one. This one is perfect for a long car-ride or plane rides.

3. Pack Ice

Ice Packs are a little tricky because you need ones that fit your tote for bottles and/or lunch boxes/snack packs as the kid’s grow. I like these colorful one, these slim ones, and also these long-lasting ones. I also would hunt down some perfectly sizes gel ones that can form around bottles. I have tons of ice packs in my freezer in all shapes and sizes to make sure we always have cold ones that fit both bottle totes and lunch boxes. I also use my Packit freezable containers!

4. Instant Ice

If you will be somewhere in which you will not have access to a freezer in order to keep ice packs frozen, try using these packs for those instances. You can pump and when you need to, crack the pack to make it cold and keep the breast milk in the appropriate temperature within an insulated tote/pack with these instant packs.

5. Ship It

Get your breast milk shipped home from anywhere in the U.S. by Milkstork. You can also purchase dry-ice and package the milk to be shipping from FedEx or UPS in an insulated container.

6. Cooler Size

For camping, super long road trips or other fun (but long) times/events outside the home, consider a cooler like this one or this 24-hour one! You’ll need more space for more milk!

7. Mini Fridge Miracles

If you are renting a (powered) but kitchen-less cabin, driving to a fridge-less airbnb or otherwise roughing it without a fridge for more than a day – consider bringing a mini-fridge with you. Maybe you work in an office that doesn’t have a good place for you to store your pumped milk. Seriously, a mini-fridge. Here is your new super tiny, tiny portable mini fridge! Or this one!

8. Label It

Use Freezer Labels for your cooler, milk packets, bottles, etc. while traveling or otherwise utilizing shared cold storage space. I would go as far as putting my phone number on the tote or milk bottles – remember that story about the women who left a week’s supply of pumped milk on a plane?!

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