Breast milk and 7-day business trip (yikes)

[Anonymous]

My DD is 4 months and is only breastfed. I continue to breastfeed at least until she is 6 months. I have been pumping since her birth and DH feeds her every night so DD is used to a bottle. I've got a business trip coming up next month...7 days long. I have been freezing my milk for the past two months so she'll have enough while I'm gone. My concern is me... I work at home now and have been nursing every 3 hours between 7am and 9pm. Now, when I go on travel, (1) am I supposed to pump that often to get rid of my milk and to keep the supply up? (2) Is it safe to store the expressed milk in a hotel's mini-fridge and bring them back (fly 4 hours) so I won't waste them? Any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Hi-I did this for a couple six day trips early on and yes it's traumatic but you can make it work! Depending on your hotel, they should give you a mini fridge to store it in if you tell them you're a nursing mom. Since I had a milk bank in the freezer at home, I pumped and dumped the first few days as I didn't want to bring back milk that may have gone off (and didn't want to freeze it and then have it unfreeze on the plane...)

Then for the last four days I pumped and stored in the hotel fridge then I brought that back on a five hour flight with me in a little soft sided cooler, using ice packs refrozen from the mini-fridge freezer.
TSA should be OK with your ice packs, but I always traveled with backup of extra milk storage bags, then I would fill them up with ice on the other side of security.

I don't think anyone ever knew what was in my big black leather briefcase...until the day that I didn't cap a bottle correctly and milk went all through the bag and the floor of my biz mtg room. OOPS! that bag was never the same.

You can also overnight for first morning on dry ice, although I never tried that.

if needed, you can also pump in the airplane bathroom-just tell the attendants so they don't disturb. Also, I always put that milk straight in the trash as I was so grossed out by the experience!

Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

I went to singapore for 6 days when DD was 5 months old. I did pump the entire time (I worked in an office at the time so i had a regular schedule that i continued) so it is doable. I continued to BFed until she was 8 or 9 months old. She had some frozen milk and the rest was formula while i was gone. To be honest in retrospect and in a pragmatic mood (and its been a few years) it doesn't seem worth it but i never seriously thought to stop. i could have weaned during it. But all my kids went 8 months BFed. The last one i weaned during a business trip and that worked great so that's why i say that.

I recall getting out of the airplane bathroom after pumping with this huge line in the middle plane waiting for bathrooms! My friend just pumped at her seat and that i could not do.

Also i traveled with milk coming home frozen (stopped dumping 2 days before) - not sure you can do that anymore.

Good luck! We all do what we can and the best we can do.

[Anonymous]

I went on a week-long business trip when my daughter was 9 months old. At the time, I was breastfeeding/pumping around the clock too.

Like you, I saved up enough of a freezer stash to keep her going while I was gone. While away, I continued pumping as if I was on my normal feeding schedule. On the days that I was flying, I pumped in the airport bathroom (and dumped, of course! yuck.) right before I got on the plane and immediately upon deboarding. Not ideal, but because it only happened twice over the course of a week, it didn't mess up my supply.

During the week, I put my expressed milk in a mini-fridge at the hotel. I donated it to a nursing mom in the area through http://milkshare.birthingforlife.com/. I highly recommend looking at the milk share program. I never thought that I'd be the sort to donate milk, but in the end, I was so much happier that I could give it away rather than throw it all out!

[Anonymous]

I've only been away from my baby for a weekend, so I didn't have to worry about freezing milk, but here's what I'd do.

If you can, freeze the first day or two of pumped milk if you usually go by the rule that you have to use fresh milk within 5 days. (I've seen different recommendations on this - that it's good for only 5 days or up to a week, so that call is up to you.) Pack that for the flight with as many ice packs and ice as you can possibly manage in hopes that it'll still be frozen by the time you get home.

Save the rest unfrozen, and pack it separately from the frozen stuff, but still with as much ice/ice packs as you can.

It is definitely safe to keep milk in a hotel mini-fridge. I also have no idea why anyone would dump milk they pumped in an airport - or even airplane - bathroom. Just don't touch anything except your own things while pumping, and Purell or wet-wipe your hands after touching the door and before you start pumping. I pumped in the bathroom on three separate flights - it's not ideal, but my son has since had that milk and hasn't grown an extra limb or developed any weird illnesses. But definitely warn the flight attendants - they will not mind that you're pumping, but some appreciated knowing that I hadn't died in there or something and a few congratulated me on the effort.

Be ready for a hold-up at security. You may not get it, but it took me a good 15-20 minutes to clear security in Las Vegas as they swabbed everything... I told every TSA employee who'd listen that I had a pump and breastmilk, just to be on the safe side! Freezer packs are fine to carry with you, but actual ice might have to be dumped before you go through the scanner. I carried several extra zip-loc bags and refilled them from ice machines in the terminal. You can take an unlimited amount of breastmilk with you these days, regardless of whether your baby is with you or not. I brought a print-out of the TSA webpage saying so, just in case anyone tried to say otherwise.

If you have to pump on a flight, wear something like a nursing tank and cardigan so you're not fumbling with your clothes along with everything else. I was surprised to see that some airplane bathrooms had a plug, but don't count on it and make sure you have fresh batteries!

I didn't pump quite as often as I do at home, but it didn't seem to have a major effect on my supply.