sb123

We will be traveling for 5 days internationally without baby who is still nursing. How can we travel with and/or send back 5 days worth of EBM? Baby will have enough EBM with caregiver, this is to prevent dumping 5 days worth of EBM (about 200 oz).

We will be flying on British Airways. I called them and they said it's not possible to fly with that much milk on board or checked in. I do know that other airlines allow this. They said 1L max and that they (for some reason?) do not allow it be frozen. I have emailed them as well to clarify.

I have also inquired about shipping the EBM back in case we cannot fly with it back. And UPS, FedEx, or DHL will not ship it.

I know that TSA says there is no limit to what you bring back with or without child. Does BA's policy override that? What about airport authorities in UK or Italy where we will be?

I can't seem to get a straight answer. Anyone offer assistance? Thanks very much.

6rugrats

Welcome to FT!

You really can't do this. It would be very impractical. I would suggest extra pumping before you leave, and then freezing the milk and leaving it at home for baby. Then, you (or mom) are going to have to pump and dump while away.

Eclipsepearl

I would take the question to La Leche and see if someone over there has ideas.

I used to be an international Flight Attendant and I was still breastfeeding a 7 month old when I returned to work. I tried all sorts of ways to save that stuff but unfortunately, the almost 5 months I pumped and worked, I had to dump. La Leche, Milk banks at my layover locations, etc. No one had any other ideas.

It's sickening to send that hard work and liquid gold down the sink but I just didn't find another way...

VickiSoCal

UPS will ship frozen milk domestically- used it all the time to ship my excess to a milk bank in a cooler that had stickers all over it proclaiming what it was. Not sure about internationally.

KSinNYC

August 2010 - flying NRT - SFO with milk. I kept it in a fridge in my hotel, then packed it in a cooler with ice and brought it to the airport. Checked in at JAL biz counter (I was on a biz class ticket), told them I had milk and showed them the page I had printed from the TSA website that says you can bring milk with you. I asked the counter agent to translate the page into Japanese so I could show it to the security agent. Which I did - they read the page, made me open the cooler, looked at the bags, then sent me on my way. FWIW, on the flight I asked the FA for some more ice and when I told her what it was for, she took the cooler and put it into one of the cold lockers on the plane so the milk flew home in biz class cooled comfort. ^

Good luck.

By the way, I brought maybe 25 bags of 4 oz each... so 100 ounces or so? I assume you aren't going to pour the milk into a 1 liter bottle... you'll have the little bags, right? What if you filled them between 3-5 ounces each, then told them that you have less than 1 liter? Let them figure out how many ounces it is.

kbins

Late to this thread but posting so that others searching in the future may have this info.
My experience on AA is that it was no problem to ship a soft-sided, zipped cooler full of frozen milk as checked luggage. I travelled 10 days to Tokyo and Singapore, and pumped, stored and froze the milk. Brought it home. With gel ice packs (frozen), the milk stayed frozen solid for a nearly 24 hour transit time.

I didn't use bags, I used the hardsided Avent Via containers. Just a personal preference but way easier to fill when travelling and I didn't have to worry about a puncture. I did pump on the plane and carry milk as well.

My experience was that the biz class FAs were supportive, gave me ice to keep the milk cool on the international flights, but could not (would not?) store it in their fridges on the plane. I did give them a heads up when I went into the bathroom for 20 min to pump so they wouldn't worry what I was up to in there.

Eclipsepearl

Lactation Goddess! Can I worship at your temple? Hats off to you for pulling this off. Very helpful and encouraging to anyone else who wants to travel, pump and save.

Bummer that your milk fell under their "bodily fluids" rules (very strict). I'm wondering if anyone else does this, they simply don't say what it is But we didn't have real fridges on the plane anyway. The carts had coolers but there's no room to store anything and the bins just had dry and packed ice. Not ideal so your milk was probably better just being with you.

Thanks for sharing!

jstevenson0617

If you have access to a freezer, that would be even better. Pump and store your milk in the storage bags and freeze them asap. When I traveled to Europe several years ago, that's what I did. I was lucky enough to be able to use our office's freezer for my milk. I stored my milk there until it was time to leave. I then packed the frozen bags (probably 12-15) in a soft sided cooler with ice packs in my checked luggage. When I arrived back at home after about 15 house of traveling, much of the milk was still frozen. Good luck!