Flying with an 11 1/2 month old....

akspriss

For a Birthday Gift from my parents Jack and I are flying to Florida for  5days to stay with My Grandmother and see a bunch of my relatives down there. I only got one seat and he's going to ride in my lap because its only an hour trip and he loves sitting with me usually anyways.  Also, I will be done EPing then But will be in the process of transitioning from Breastmilk to Whole Milk so I will have ot also bring a cooler with 5 days worth of milk withme. The website makes it seem liek u shoudl bring what u need short term on the flight...but there is no way i'm checking my milk in risk of losing it!! I know a lot of you have flown recently so I wanted to get tips from all of you as far as what I can bring on the plane for him. Im flying southwest so I can check 2 bags or 1 bag and 2 things for Jack like his carseat and packnplay. Thanks in Advance for the help.

SpeedGlenn

If you explain that it's breast milk you should be able to bring it on the plane in a cooler with you.  I'm not sure what the rules are for SW so I have no idea what their bag-check rules are.  You could probably gate check his carseat and make that one of your carry ons, and check the pnp and a suitcase.

mrsNnearly

Southwest still allows 2 checked bags at no fee. BM is allowed through security in "reasonable quantities" per the tsa website. I would call the airline/airport just to confirm everything though.

ECUGirl2004

You can take as much milk as you need.  They make it sound like you can only take enough to get you through the flight, but that's not true.  I flew back from Miami with 3.5 days worth of pumped milk and it was not a problem at all.  When I flew out of RDU I didn't have much milk on me (just a day's worth of pumping at work) but they just glanced in the bag and that was it.  On the way back from Miami, I had a lot more milk.  They looked in the bag and asked me if my pump was a pump and I said yes.  That was it.  It was no big deal.  I just made sure to tell the person who was scanning my stuff that I had breastmilk with me.

When we flew we carried on a diaper bag for Nate and gate checked his car seat and his stroller.  We did not take a PNP, but we rented one when we got there.  We also rented baby gates for my sister's apartment.

HTH some!

akspriss

Im worried about checkign his carseat as baggage but I dunno that i'd be able to make it to the gate with him in his stroller his diaper bag and somehow carry a carseat...would it be a bad idea to check his carseat as baggage?

 

mrsNnearly

Gate checked items aren't usually insured so you may be better off checking it. I'd get one of those bag covers for it though so it doesn't get wet or scratched up under the plane,

flamencogal

Traveling with the BM isn't a problem.  I spoke with both TSA and SWA before our flight to FL.  I flew with about 100 oz of frozen BM on dry ice in a soft cooler that I carried on.  No way was I checking BM that I worked so hard to pump!!!  BM is considered medically necessary and you can take as much as you want as long as you declare it at security. (Stacyc traveled with 600 oz once!).  I did dry ice (got it at Kroger) just because that was easier for me than doing ice packs.  I forget the exact rule but dry ice is fine if it's less than a certain number of pounds (you buy it by the pound)--I'm wanting to say 5 lbs or less but I'm not sure.  I just made sure I told them it was on dry ice so they wouldn't "burn" their hands checking the bag. GL!

akspriss

Thanks Flamencogal...I was sorta hoping my Fellow EP mom had flown with a bunch of milk...I was worried about Ice not keeping it cold as long as I needed it to be frozed but good thinking about dry Ice. I plan to call them so I will make sure about teh limit of dry ice and such.