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Breastfeeding
DaisyJanie
member
Going through TSA with a bunch of pumped milk
DaisyJanie
member
I'm going on a 3-day work trip and bringing back my pumped milk with me. I've traveled with breast milk before, but I just had a couple bottles. At that time they put each individual bottle in that machine, and it's not like it took forever but it was a bit of a hassle. If I come through with like 20 Lansinoh bags of milk, are they going to put them each in the machine one at a time? That seems like it would take forever.
I keep going back and forth about whether to put the milk in my checked bag. It seems like it would be a lot easier, but I would hate to lose all that milk if my bag got lost.
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Re: Going through TSA with a bunch of pumped milk
I traveled with 150oz of milk once -- about 40 medla bags. They did not individually scan the milk. Instead, I put my cooler bag which contained the milk in a separate bin (similar to what you do with laptops). Prior to going through security, I informed the TSA agent that I was traveling with breast milk.
Hope this helps.
I recently went through with about 20 bags. Yes, they are supposed to test each one individually, but the woman I had looked at them, said I'm not testing all of these and just swabbed the inside of my cooler bags. If she had done all of them, it probably would have taken 20 minutes so I just gave myself extra time. The last few times I've been through, they haven't even checked my milk, just looked at and I said "it's breastmilk" and they let me go. I fly at least once a week.
I've had mixed experiences depending on the airport. Some open every single bottle and hold the paper test strip over it. Some have the machine and they put every bottle in. One didn't open my frozen milk at all - only the liquidy milk. And one just looked at it and sent it through (I did go to high school with one of the TSA people working at the time though). I think it just depends on the person you get and what equipment the airport has. So I would allow extra time just in case.
I would only put it in checked luggage if you have a direct flight (so less chance of it being left out on the tarmac and lost/delayed).
Thanks for the responses. I think I will carry it on, and leave some extra time to get through security. It is a red-eye, and then another short flight in the morning, so I'd definitely be worried about the bag being delayed. I'm traveling with a coworker, so I think I'll tell him to go on ahead of me at security because that seems like it would be awkward, us both waiting around while my milk gets tested.