International travel WITHOUT the baby and breast milk logistics..

[Anonymous]

I need to go away for 3 nights in early May. My child will be 10 months old by then, but he will not be traveling with me. I EBF and work part time, so I pump like once a day. How can I make this work without having to stop breastfeeding altogether? The baby will be fine. My husband will feed him formula or whatever breast milk I have stored. But how I do do while Im away with:

1. Pumped milk. How do I transport it back to the USA from Costa Rica without having the baby with me? Will I be allowed by TSA? How do I transport it? Will I have to throw it away???

2. Will I need to pump four times a day while Im away because that is how often he is nursing a day?

I really would like to BF until he is 12 months.. I would hate it to stop before just because of this 4 days trip that I HAVE to take..

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can bring breast milk back without baby. Just bring a copy of the TSA policy just in case. I brought mine back on ice -chilled not frozen. You can check it in a styrofoam container (I wrote fragile-breast milk for --- all over the container !).

You will need to pump on the same schedule (approximately) as you do at home.

Bring batteries for your bump just in case. I blew my transformer in Brazil and scurried around frantically to find batteries.

You'll be fine!

[Anonymous]

You need to stay on your same pumping schedule, but I would just dump the milk. Too big of a hassle to bring it back.

[Anonymous]

Yes you should pump 4 times a day if your infant nurses 3x, to avoid a drop in supply. You can bring milk back, but it is a little bit of a pain, so it's fine to dump it if you're not super attached. For 3-4 days, that's what I did.

[Anonymous]

were you able to bring the milk back? I'm about to do a long international flight and was wondering the same thing. I have been traveling within the states and had no problem carrying the milk back with me. I do not know how things will work on an international flight through customs.

[Anonymous]

I would dump the milk as well. It is too much of a hassle to store it and then bring it back.

[Anonymous]

I would just pump and dump - same number of times he nurses.

[Anonymous]

God no. I would never dump. You can bring it back, yes.

[Anonymous]

I never did international w breastmilk, but it wasn't hard to travel with it. Don't dump! I used the large ziplock twist top containers for storage and brought additional ones to fill with ice for the cooler. Used a beach type cooler...rectangular with zip top...and packed it with the containers, and put the cooler in checked luggage. My longest flight was over 5 hours plus all the travel time and the ice was still frozen when I got home.

Remember to bring bottle brushes to wash pump parts and dish soap. Make sure hotel has a fridge and ice machine. Make sure hotel fridge isn't so cold as to freeze milk while it is stored there. Bring ziplock bags or milk storage bags to use as ice packs while you're out...most hotel fridges do not have a freezer section.