I get a lot of questions from readers about breastfeeding while traveling, and evidently I’m not the only one. Last week The Juggle featured an article with tips about how to do it successfully. It is absolutely allowed, and completely doable. The main points from The Juggle:
- Prepare ahead of time. Build up your supply before you leave, and make sure your baby will take a bottle. Also, call ahead and see if the office you are visiting has a place where you can pump.
- Carry on your pump. Just to avoid confusion with baggage screeners, take your pump in your carry-on bag.
- Arrange for a freezer. Call your hotel and let them know you will need a freezer in your room. Most hotel chains should be able to accommodate you.
- Tell the TSA you have breastmilk. When you go through security, let the TSO know that you have breastmilk. They should be able to screen it without it going through the X-ray machine.
Readers, have any of you traveled while breastfeeding? Any additional tips to share?
I don’t have children and consequently have never breastfed, let along while traveling, but I have many friends who have. Several of them have been known to FedEx milk home.
The dry ice thing in the Juggle article was way unrealstic. I can’t find dry ice at home much less on the road. Thanks for listing the realistic things! Especially the pump location! Crucial!
i traveled while nursing with four children. with the first, at age 3 months i headed back to work and flew, carrying my breastpump through security at a government facility on day 1. by babes 3 & 4, i learned to politely decline to travel unless essential until they were over 1, which seems to have not hurt my career in any way, in fact, it seems to have engendered a lot of respect. one thing i learned was that the payoff of breastfeeding made it worth jumping thru whatever hoops. just get a good quality pump, use glass bottles (nutshell version: plastic BAD), and fed ex on ice packs where necessary.
The absolutely best book on this subject is Breastfeeding Success for Working Women. It was self-published back 20 years ago when I needed it, but it is chock full of ideas for how to build up supply. Her reverse cycle feed plan was brilliant and entirely workable. As for keeping milk cool on the road, why worry? Pump it and dump it. There’s more where that came from! When you return home pump on one side while feeding baby on the other and you’ll build up your milk supply in a hurry.
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