Traveling with frozen breastmilk ?

Kim72508

I'm not producing enough to keep up with DS.  We've been supplementing with frozen BM during the day and before bed- probably 10oz per day.  We're going on vacation next month and I'm starting to stress about how we'll transport BM with us.  We're driving from NY to NC.  Our plan is to leave Friday at dinner time then stop somewhere overnight, finish the trip on the next day.  We're staying at a beach house so we'll have access to a freezer once we get there.  I'm worried that it will defrost and then go bad before the end of the week.  Am I over thinking this?  How do you manage traveling with frozen BM? 

BelhurstBride

Could you get your hands on some dry ice? Otherwise I would refresh the ice as often as you can. I did that with travelling from NY to ME and it worked out.

I read somewhere that as long as it doesn't fully thaw you're good, but I don't know how true that is. I would check kellymom.com.

Two*True

If it thaws completely you have 24 hours to use it, if it's still slushy you can refreeze it. I agree, if you can get dry ice use that.  Otherwise just keep it as frozen as possible. Good luck!

Kim72508

HMM....dry ice scares me!  Tell me about how to store it if that's the route I go....would I use a foam cooler?  A regular cooler?  How do I vent it? 

kac0807

I had to travel I think 3 times for work while I was BFing and had to figure out a way to bring with, keep cold, and store my milk. All 3 times they were plane trips but still some were a while before I got to a freezer. I just packed as many ice packs and ice in baggies as I could in a little cooler. Then when I got to the hotel I asked I would go to the ice machine and get fresh ice for the night I put it into those plastic bags they leave in the ice buckets in the hotel room and then I would take my ice packs to the front desk, explained that I was a breastfeeding Mom and ask if there was a freezer I could put them in for the night. Not one place that I asked was freaked out by it or not accomodating. They all said no problem at all and said other Moms had asked for that in the past too. I think as long as you keep them cold...not necessarily frozen and then use those up first once you get there you'll be fine.

kac0807

Could you bring with you milk that has just been refrigerated instead of some of your frozen stash....that's much easier to keep and you can keep it for longer. I think if I remember correctly a week refrigerated.

Kim72508

kac0807:

Could you bring with you milk that has just been refrigerated instead of some of your frozen stash....that's much easier to keep and you can keep it for longer. I think if I remember correctly a week refrigerated.

I'm not keeping up with what he drinks.  As of right now, I'm nursing him in the morning and he's getting enough.  He gets a bottle of pumped milk from the day before at 11am.  At 3 he gets a bottle of frozen milk.  I nurse him before bed and then give him an extra 4oz while reading books.  I would need 10oz minimum per day while we're away.  I don't think I'll be able to pump that much for him....

jnk062602

Maybe I was wrong?  But the milk that I froze was frozen right away.  So if milk is good for 5-7 days in the fridge, why wouldn't it be good 5-7 days once it thaws in the fridge, as long as it didn't get room temp?  I don't know....  When we drove to myrtle beach, I just took frozen medela bags of milk, added ice packs to the cooler, and it was mostly thawed by the time we got there.  Then it was just in the fridge and we used it up by the end of the vacation.