Traveling Without Your Nursing Child

Photo courtesy of Jillian Wester

Traveling with breastmilk but without your breastfeeding/nursing child? Here’s some tips for you while traveling:

1. Ask for a hotel room with a fridge

I suppose I don’t really need to explain this one. However my tip is that most Hampton Inns have in-room fridges standard. I found this out while researching for a road trip we took with my baby for whom I was exclusively pumping, so I had to be able to store milk, since “on tap” wasn’t an option for us.

Just be sure to check the temp on the fridge since they can run really warm or really cold. Keeping the milk away from the “mini-freezer flap area” so it doesn’t freeze is probably a good idea. (See item #3 below for my reasoning.)

2. Make sure to pump often.

If you have a newborn, you should aim to pump 8-12 times in a 24 hour period, including overnight.

If you have an older child and have settled into more of a pattern of when your baby feeds or a schedule of when you pump at work, you can follow that schedule.

If your little one is older than a year, this is a little more variable. Some kiddos are still nursing a ton and pumping to keep up supply will be helpful for maintaining supply. For others who are more doing quick comfort sessions, but not really taking in much milk, and your trip will be short, you may be able to get away with not pumping if you feel like your body has switched over to making milk on-the-fly, rather than making and storing. Wouldn’t hurt to at least bring a hand pump or plan to hand express just in case you do start to get engorged. The longer you plan to be away, the safer it would be to keep your supply up and avoid getting mastitis, which can happen when your body is used to producing milk and having it removed from the body regularly and then all of a sudden you stop removing the milk.

3. To freeze the milk or not?

How long you will be away from your baby depends on whether I recommend freezing or refrigerating your milk.

Why? Milk at a fridge temp stays good for about 6-ish days. Milk at freezer temp will stay good for up to 6 months, BUT if it defrosts during your travel such that all the ice crystals are gone from it, it should be used within 24 hours.

So, if you will be back home within 6 or fewer days from the time you start pumping milk, I would suggest keeping all your milk at fridge temp and the freezing when you get home.

You can freeze gel packs to help keep the milk cool, you just don’t have to freeze the milk. It’s much easier to keep something at fridge temp while traveling than at freezer temp. This is especially important if your flight plans get delayed or cancelled and you’re going to be at the airport awhile. If your gel packs get too warm, you can go to any fast food establishment INSIDE SECURITY and get ice from their soda machines. It will help keep things cool, but probably can’t refreeze milk that’s thawing.

If you will be gone longer than 6 days, you can choose to freeze some of your milk and keep some fridge temp. That way if you end up with any travel plan snafus and your frozen milk thaws, you won’t have to use ALL of what you bring home within 24 hours, just the bags you froze. (Make sure to mark your frozen bags to differentiate them from your fridge bags.)

4. Getting through security at the airport

If you are flying, travel with a copy of the TSA rules on traveling with milk and have it bookmarked on your phone, that way in case any TSA employees give you flack about traveling with breastmilk, you can show them their own rules that you can travel with as much milk as you need to as carry-on, that you can bring gel packs to keep it cold, and that you do not have to be traveling with your child, either.

5. Supply checklist

Highly necessary items:

• Pump
• Flanges and collection kit
• Power cord
• Tubing
• Lap towel (to catch drips — helpful when it’s a work trip and you’re dressed professionally)
• Dishwashing soap (hand soap usually contains fragrances and color that aren’t meant for food surfaces, in my opinion)
• Storage containers
• Steam bag
• Pumping bra (recommended)
• Edible nipple cream/oil (if necessary—it helps lube the pump flanges to reduce friction)
• Heat wrap (if you get cold easily)
• Breast pads (if you leak)

Additional items you may need, depending on the type of travel and access to things like electrical outlets, sinks, refrigerator:

• Battery pack, car adapter or a manual pump/hand pump
• Nursing cover (even if it’s just a towel or blanket)
• Cooler bag w/ ice pack
• Breastpump parts wipes (not just any baby wipes — use wipes that are food-safe) or a wet washcloth in a waterproof bag in case you will have limited/no access to a sink