Breastfeeding and Travel: Keeping Up Your Milk Supply

Travel, with or without a breastfeeding baby, can feel overwhelming, but continuing to breastfeed or express milk benefits both parent and child.

Traveling with your baby

Breastfeeding can comfort a baby whose routine is disrupted by travel, and breast milk gives ideal nutrition and keeps babies hydrated. Breastfed babies under 6 months need no water or other liquids, even in hot weather.

• Plan ahead to keep nursing or expressing milk.
• On planes, nurse during takeoff and landing to help protect your baby from ear pain caused by changing cabin pressure.
• Feed on demand; breastfeeding whenever the baby is hungry best maintains your supply.

Traveling without your baby

A lactation support provider or pediatrician can help you plan.

• Before you go, express milk so your child can keep having it while you are apart. Babies who have never drunk from a bottle or cup should practice with another caregiver.
• While away, you can express milk and store it, ship it home, or "pump and dump." If storing or shipping isn't possible, pumping and discarding still maintains your supply for when you are back together.

Expressing milk on the road

• Take regular breaks to express, ideally as often as your baby would normally feed.
• For a long trip, an electric pump may work better; check whether you need a plug adapter and converter.
• Have a backup, such as hand expression or a portable manual pump.
• Wash your hands with soap and water first, or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
• Keep pump parts clean, and plan how to do it where you are going.
• In a car, plane or other transport, a manual or battery-powered pump may be best; some pumps run on car adapters.

Storing and carrying milk

• Ask your hotel or lodging in advance for a compact refrigerator if you need one.
• Store milk in milk storage bags or clean, food-grade glass or BPA-free plastic containers with tight lids, at the back of the refrigerator or freezer, where the temperature is steadiest.
• Freshly expressed milk can travel in an insulated cooler with frozen ice packs for up to 24 hours; on arrival, use it, refrigerate it or freeze it.
• Frozen milk carried in a cooler can be refrozen if it still has ice crystals when you arrive. Milk that has thawed completely should be kept cold and used within 24 hours. Check it after a few hours if you can.
• Rules differ by type of transport, so plan ahead.

Flying

• The Friendly Airports for Mothers (FAM) Act and FAM Improvement Act require every airport to provide a private, non-bathroom space for expressing milk in each terminal; check the airport's website.
• In the United States, expressed milk and related feeding items are exempt from the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) limits on liquids and gels. You can take all expressed milk, ice or gel packs (frozen or not), pumps and pump kits, and other items for carrying milk through security and onto the plane, even when traveling without your baby.
• Tell the TSA officer at the start of screening, and separate these items from other liquids limited to 3.4 oz (100 mL).
• Milk is usually screened by X-ray, and X-rayed milk is safe for your child. If you don't want it X-rayed or opened, say so; TSA will use other steps, and you will get additional screening.
• Allow extra time, and consider carrying a printed copy of the TSA rules on expressed milk.

Back home

If your supply dropped while you were away, you can keep breastfeeding when you return; in most cases supply recovers within several days. After long separations, some babies used to a bottle or cup find it hard to return to the breast; a lactation support provider can help.

Sources

• CDC, "Travel Recommendations for Nursing Mothers": https://www.cdc.gov/infant-toddler-nutrition/breastfeeding/travel-recommendations.html
• CDC Yellow Book, "Travel and Breastfeeding": https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/family-travel/travel-and-breastfeeding.html
• TSA, traveling with children: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/tsa-cares/traveling-children