Pumping during travel?

[bluelikejazz]

What's the best way to pump during a travel day?  I have to travel for work, and will be with my whole team from when I get to the airport until we get to the hotel (about 6 hours).  I can likely go this long, but I'd like an option in case I can't.  Should I get a manual pump? (which one?)  And should I just pump to relieve pressure?  Or try to pump a whole feeding?  Are there places at the airport I can pump?  Or should I just hide in a corner with a cover?

I also haven't decided if I'm going to save any milk - any great advice on how to store/transport/get through TSA with 4 days of BM?  DD takes formula fine (my supply is already a little low for her, so she gets 4-6 oz/day already), but if I could have 4 days worth of milk stored, we could stop using formula for a bit.

Thanks!

[rbp]

Some airports have nursing rooms, but the ones I traveled through only had family restrooms as the best option. A little gross, but I just washed my hands and tried not to touch much. LOL. I would try to allow 25 min. so you can get a full pump in.

[bluelikejazz]

Dumb questions:

Can/should MB go through X-Ray?

Can I keep BM in a mini-fridge in my hotel room during the week and will it be ok if I freeze it when I get home? (I will bring ice-packs for travel - are these ok?)

[mpc]

ice packs are ok as long as they are frozen when you go through security. I've also taken ziplocs and filled them with ice from a restaurant after going through security.

I always let my milk go through the X-ray. how closely they inspected it changed every time I traveled.

I've pumped in an airport bathroom and a plane bathroom. Not ideal, but it can work if you need it. I would find a time to split off from your group for a bit and do it if at all possible. Scratch that, if I wasn't planning on bringing it home, I probably wouldn't try quite so hard to pump during that 6 hours, but if I wanted it to bring home (which isn't that hard) I would make the effort.

I brought my electric pump and ran it off of batteries.

[Poppy]

I'm coming up on a similar 4-day trip (DS will be 4.5mo). First, here are some old threads that I have bookmarked:
pandce.proboards.com/thread/369029/flying-pumping
pandce.proboards.com/thread/392684/pumping-traveling
pandce.proboards.com/thread/396490/another-pumping-traveling-question

Here is a list of airports and lactation rooms (largely bathrooms):
limerickinc.com/pdf/US_Airport_Lactation_Rooms.pdf

I am unsure whether I am going to try to bring the milk back (cleaning stuff would be easier if I didn't), but I think it'd break my heart to dump it. So my plan as of now is to try to pump every 3 hours round the clock and to bring as much back as is reasonable. I am not sure if the room fridge has a freezer, but I will be looking into that shortly. My biggest concern right now is a cooler to fit all my milk for the return.

For cleaning parts, I've seen this portable drying rack recommended, but I think I'm just going to bring some of my own clean towels for drying on, plus bottle brush, dish rag and tiny dish soap. Also bringing some of those microwave steam sanitize bags for sanitizing. I'm planning to bring my manual and my PISA, use the PISA in the hotel and use the manual on the go.

For TSA, I plan to bring a bunch of bags full of ice from the hotel, then toss those before security and fill some new ones after security. Someone suggested using breastmilk storage bags for ice.


It's going to be a huge PITA. But we'll see how it goes. When's your trip? Mine is mid-April and I can report back if that'll help.

[bluelikejazz]

Poppy - thank you! Great suggestions! My trip is also mid-April

Like you, I think it would break my heart to dump all that milk! I'm flying home solo, so if I get questioned/held up at security, it won't be a huge deal, I'll just plan to head to security early.

I got this bag for my birthday that I currently use to transport everything back and forth from work in, and am planning to use to hold all my milk in on the way home from my trip.

[Deleted]

Not sure how practical/cost effective it would be, but could you ship the breast milk back home? A dry ice shipping kit   is only $15.75, although you would probably get whacked on actual shipping.