Last week was my first trip away from home since I had my baby. One of my big concerns was traveling with breast milk. The TSA rules are pretty straightforward, but I’ve heard that in practice they are not super consistent (shocker right?). The rules from the TSA website are:

• Breast milk is exempt from the 3-1-1 rule (because it’s considered a medicine).
• You can travel with freezer packs, and they can be frozen solid or partially frozen.
• Separate your breast milk from your liquids toiletry bag.
• You do not have to be traveling with your child to travel with breast milk.
• You may be subject to additional screening.

Sounds pretty straightforward right? When I got to my home airport I did all of the stuff I normally do, pulling out my laptop, taking off my shoes, etc. I also pulled out my cooler full of empty bottles and freezer packs. I told the TSO that I was traveling with medicine and had a freezer pack. He said, “No problem, we’ll just have to check that the freezer pack is completely frozen.” Uh, okay. Since I had just left my house it was completely frozen, but it likely wouldn’t be the next night when I flew home. As I was waiting for them to check it (holding up the line, of course. Cringe.) I asked what would happen when I flew back home and the freezer packs were only partially frozen and repeatedly told that they had to be fully frozen. I said, “On your website it says that when traveling with medicine they can be partially frozen.” And the lady quoted the 3-1-1 rule to me. Ugh.

So I was pretty anxious about what would happen when I flew home. At that point, I had the mostly frozen gel packs, plus a quart sized bag of ice, in my cooler. I let them know I was traveling with medications, they said, “Ok thanks for letting us know,” and then slid all of my stuff through. No waiting, no extra screening, no questions about the gel packs or the ice. All that worry for nothing.

When I traveled again this past Monday, it was the same thing. I let them know, they slid it through the X-ray machine, no waiting. Easy peasy!

Obviously YMMV. I have a print out of the TSA’s guidelines in my pump bag just in case. It sounds like it will never be consistent, but that doesn’t surprise me.

Also, be sure to check out Corporette’s post about how to ask for a place to pump during travel.

As I mentioned last week, this week is my first work trip since I had my baby. I’m a little anxious about leaving the Mini Warrior, to be sure. Another big concern is that I’m still nursing. How do I pump and transport an entire day’s worth of milk through the airport, to my client’s office, and then back home? Luckily, I am part of a great mom’s group, and they helped me put together a strategy. (I would like to send a huge thank you to my friend Terri from Finding Drishti, who gave me tons of great advice. You rock, Terri!!)

Pack the supplies! I am bringing my pump (Medela Pump in Style ), a cooler (similar to this PackIt cooler from Amazon), frozen gel packs, dish soap for cleaning pump parts (kept in a contact lens case), milk storage bags, and gallon and quart sized Ziplock bags. It was recommended to bring extra bags just in case.

Make sure there will be a place to pump at the office. I don’t need to worry about it this time, but next time I travel I will have to pump at my client’s office. Even though it feels a little awkward, I will have to ask my contact if there is a mother’s room available.

Request a mini-fridge in the hotel. You can store your milk and cooler in the fridge at the hotel, but likely you will have to specifically request it. Don’t worry about freezing it—as one friend said, “You can always freeze your milk once you’re home, but you can’t refreeze it if something happens and it unfreezes.”

Pump before you leave for airport. This is great advice—I will pump at home before I leave. This way I don’t have to worry about it until I arrive at the hotel.

Plan pumping into the schedule. It’s super important pump regularly, which means you have to build time into your schedule for it. One place where that will be tricky is between my meeting and the airport, when I have a narrow window of time. I am going to try to pump in the car in a parking lot (I have done this before—just cover up with a blanket), but if there is no time I may end up in the airport restroom. Oh well.

Wear something pumping friendly. I had my outfit all planned, and was super excited to wear a dress I got right before I got pregnant, and haven’t gotten to wear much since. Until I realized that to pump I would literally have to take the dress off. No thank you!! I will be wearing slacks, a cute nursing top (similar to this one from Target), and a cardigan. I’ll wear my cute dress when I get back home!

Transporting 101. I’m going to store my milk in 2 and 3 oz increments, so if there’s a leak I won’t lose much. I will put those small bags in a gallon size bag inside my cooler. At the hotel and the office I will put it in a refrigerator. The gel packs will keep everything cold during transport, but just in case I will fill up a quart size bag with ice once I get to the airport. Take it out when you get to the security checkpoint. Let TSA know you have breastmilk and just send it through the X-ray machine, or you can request for them to visually inspect it.

It sounds like a lot of details to keep up with, that’s for sure. But that’s the way it is now! I have to at least try to get this milk home, because the idea of throwing out 30 oz makes me want to cry. After my trip I will let you all know how it goes!

Readers, any advice? Did I cover everything?

ETA: For those of you who are interested, here is what the TSA says about traveling with breast milk.

This post contains affiliate links.