Traveling while BF-ing - pump, milk, questions galore....

ktwdw129

So I am taking DD to see my sister next month, and I'm still nursing DS, so I'll need to travel with my pump, etc. I'll be leaving DS at home with my husband for the weekend.

Have you done this? Did you just carry it on? I hate to pump and dump anything from that weekend - can you carry back through milk without a baby with you (assuming I have an option for a cooler for it, etc.) Anything else I am not thinking about?

Love any suggestions! Thanks!

mrs.wildman

You can totally pump and bring it all back. If traveling with BM, you can also have a cooler and packs to keep the milk cold. If it's just for the weekend, I don't recommend freezing the milk until you get home as it will thaw some in travelling and you won't be able to re-freeze at that point. If you have enough pumping bottles, I'd probably leave the milk in those and travel back with them that way. I'd be too afraid to carry around the milk in lansinoh bags for fear that they might leak and milk be gone.

When you get to security, tell the peeps that you have breastmilk and they'll ask you to open your cooler so that they can swab the bottles. At some airports I just had to open the cooler and show them the milk, in some (ABIA) they checked each bottle of milk individually - they open it and wave some kind of WMD-sensing cloth over it to make sure it's safe.

Here's a link to TSA's guidelines - https://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/children/formula.shtm

kpowersw

I have carried BM on and packed it in checked luggage.  My baby wasn't with me and that was no problem.  I almost think checking it was better since it's so cold in the baggage part of the plane it almost did the refridgerating for me.  Regardless, I used Lanisoh freezer bags as they took less room than bottles.  I put those in a small cooler I brought with ice, then wrapped it all in a garbage bag just in case and put it in my suitcase.  It made it through fine, no leaks and was still cold when I got it home.

When I carried it on I essentially did the same thing with the bags and small cooler.  I gave the TSA folks a heads up right away that I had a breastpump/BM so I wouldn't get hung up and didn't have any issues.  The Kellymom site has some great content on all this too if you want more info.   

 

 

Abrooks

Ditto the other ladies. You're free to carry it all on. (They changed the rules since you and I had our first ones.)  They are super easy about it too.  I think mostly b/c most the TSA are men and they have no interest in touching BM, lol.  Sometimes they want to see it. Sometimes they don't care. Only once did they actually test it.  

The pump goes through security easy too.  I had a soft-sided cooler pack and carried the BM w/ me.  You'll need a bigger one for a weekend trip than what you use on a daily basis. I used the Lansinoh bags to carry it all in.  I had the freezer packs to keep the milk cold  - but also brought along some freezer size ziplocs to get ice if needed.  (This happened a few times - delays, freezer didn't get the packs cold enough, etc.)  Double bag the ziplocs in case of leaks - but the ice will work and you can get it in the food court area.