Since it says for the medical reason, I dont know if it would be easy to
carry them through the screening.
Technically you can take the saline solution over 4oz, but travellers were forced to throw em away.

I spoke with AA and with TSA customer service today. They confirmed that:

1) I can carry-on any number of empty containers for me to express milk into while flying

2) I can NOT bring gel packs to keep the milk cold while flying - not considered a medical necessity

3) AA doesn't have refrigeration available for me on the plane. To keep the milk cold, I can buy ice after security checkpoints (or get it on the plane; AA said they would give me ice if I had a leakproof container to carry the ice and the milk)

4) if my travel plans require me to go back through security (in my case, after clearing customs in Chicago I have to re-screen), I would likely have to dump any expressed milk I was carrying. But I would be able to put the milk in my luggage before I recheck it.

So today I'm off to try and find a cooler to check as luggage, and a waterproof bag to carry my expressed milk and ice. Since I'm flying AUS-ORD-DUB, I've got a couple long flights and will need to pump and carry the milk and keep it cool.

Freezing human milk loses some of the nutritive properties, but I feel it's safer to ensure it stays cold while travelling as checked luggage. It will be in that cooler for 18-24 hours, assuming it doesn't get lost.

For those of you interested, there is an online petition circulating to request the TSA add human breast milk to the list of life supporting and life sustaining bodily fluids that can be visually inspected and be brought on board in any amount, whether a mother is traveling with or away from her infant.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takea...ltl=1162781672

kbins, I don't have any children, so I don't know much about this stuff. So please excuse my ignorance, but I am curious and would like to learn, so...can you tell me why you need to keep the expressed breast milk? Is it for you to give to the baby when you get home? If you express it, don't you keep lactating, and in that case, don't you just make more? I just want to learn more about this so I can understand it better.

Thanks!
GG

These are good questions, and I certainly didn't understand any of it before I had babies myself. :)

Yes, I am expressing milk to give to the baby when I return home. He's currently exclusively breastfed. I pump twice a day at work (hubby works from home and cares for baby during the day) and bring the milk home for him to take in bottles the next day.

I've built up a 'stash' of milk to carry through the 4 days of travel. But when I return, there probably will be no milk left in the freezer. I will want every precious drop for my baby, not the TSA trash can.

Why work so hard to give only mother's milk and not formula? Well, my middle son has a lifethreatening peanut allergy, and the allergist says that breastfeeding for 6 months minimum (which is also incidentally the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation for ALL babies) will help to prevent a similar allergy in him.

Lactation is a supply-and-demand system. If you nurse (or pump) less frequency, you make less milk. If I get even a couple hours off schedule during the work week, I definitely make less milk.

It seems to take twice as long to build it back up once you start to lose your supply. If I was only pumping infrequently while traveling, I'd have to commit to pumping or nursing every couple of hours, for a few days, to get back to my normal supply.

If I am late for a pumping session, my breasts leak - I end up with a soaked shirt. Embarrassing at a minimum.

Sudden weaning also can cause serious pain/engorgement of the breasts and can cause mastitis, an infection of the breast milk ducts. Mastitis can land you in the hospital.

All in all, not fun.

There's also the work involved - to get 6oz milk, I have to invest 30 min in a pumping session. To just throw away the milk is heartbreaking. I've had to pump in conference rooms, bathrooms, my car - all to keep this milk supply going. I'll be d****'d if the TSA is going to throw away my milk!!!!

absolutely!
 

To sidetrack this process by the TSA is a sin!

Deleted

kbins, thank you for the reply. I understand your situation much more now and would like to sign the petition- but the link isn't working. I went to the petition site and found the petition and clicked, but that wasn't working, either. Does anyone know if something's happened to it?

Thanks,
GG

It isnt working for me either..

RE: the petition link --

The site seems to want you to go through their front page. Go to www.thepetitionsite.com, then do a search on the term "milk" -- this petition will pop right up at the top of the result list.

Personally I think they will need a LOT more than 3000 signatures to have any hope of persuading TSA. Time to get the LLL ladies involved.

Excellent- that worked. Thanks!

GG

The conundrum known as Bart continues to show up and work for an agency he knows to have idiotic policy and leadership.

"To thine own self, first be true..."

And the conundrum known as "TSA Customers" continue to line up for this bullshirt in ever larger numbers. Open ever wider, kiddies. Your TSA Oatmeal is getting colder and lumpier.

Are you under the impression that by quitting, Bart would somehow change a system that has already shown little to no self-examination? Bart is making a difference by being a voice of reason and sanity in at least ONE airport in this country and I applaud him for doing so.

It's always easier to run away than to stand and fight, but keep in mind that this country was founded on standing one's ground.

GG

^ What GG said.

Well, the TSA has lost its collective mind.

I'm just through T1 security at ORD, and the guy in front of me had his little plastic bag of goodies confiscated as it was the wrong size.

So far OK, but here's the kicker. He had been GIVEN the bag to use by the TSA in Columbus, and it even said "TSA" on it. The guys at ORD said "wrong size, no zip top" and took it away from him. When he began to tell his story, they said "TSA at Columbus isn't TSA in Chicago". Honestly.

They also took my corkscrew with the tiny knife that's been through security a 100 times, but such is life.

File a claim: http://www.tsaclaims.org/