Tips and Tricks for Pumping: Traveling

There comes a time when you need to travel for work or travel with your baby.  The majority of the information below relates mostly to traveling with milk.  I have traveled twice for work while pumping the second time, it can be very stressful.  To make it worse, the first time I had to travel was also the first time I had ever traveled by myself!  I survived and learned a lot.

I also think that if you are an over producer or need to pump more often it might be a little more challenging.  If you don’t think you will have time to pump when you normally do, try to create a new schedule with your travel plans.  Some women who can’t pump as often when traveling find they need to pump more often when they get home or do other things to increase your supply.  Now onto the good stuff!

Traveling (Mostly applies to Air travel)

  • I found a medium size cooler to carry on worked great.  It can get heavy so a roll on is helpful to attach to.
  • Bring extra zip lock bags.  DO NOT get the ones with the plastic zipper (THEY LEAK!), you’ll need the double zipper gallon size.  Put the bottles/bags in those.  Also have extra to put ice if needed.
  • Don’t take ice packs you don’t want thrown away.  I’ve never lost any, but I’ve heard of many moms who had the TSA people throw them out.  It’s better to NOT argue with them, just be prepared.
  • Give yourself extra time if you have milk with you.  Sometimes they will want to test the milk.  One time I had some guy test 5 bags out of each gallon size bag I had, it takes time.  They opened the bags/bottles and waved a small piece of paper over the top to test, nothing went into the milk.  I also heard in some countries they may make you taste the milk.
  • Make sure you aren’t at the end of the line; they might take away your roll on if the over heads are full.  If you have a connection the roll on is REALLY nice to help carry a heavy cooler.
  • Make sure the hotel you’re staying in has a fridge, not all have them but most if not all will at least accommodate you if your storing breast milk.  This is another reason to have extra plastic bags, not all hotels will have the ability to freeze things but all have ice machines.
  • If your pumping in an airport you can use the family restrooms, I noticed that often times people like to stand right in front of them so keep a good eye out.  Also, in the restrooms if you can’t find an outlet look behind things, there’s a restroom in the Atlanta airport that I had to move the garbage can for the outlet.

If you haven’t read the previous posts on Getting Started, General Information and Increasing your Supply you might want to check them out.  Also look for the last post in the series on Freezing milk.

About Amy

Hi, my name is Amy and I’m in my late 20’s. I’m married to an amazing stay at home dad and we have two kids (a Boy and a Girl). I work full time in IT as a Business Analyst and recently went back to school full time for my MBA. My family and my career are both very important to me; I’m constantly trying to find better ways to provide my family with the best.
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