I originally was going from Friday-Sunday but changed my flight last minute to Saturday-Sunday…total new mom move right? So it was only one night and I made it with only a few tears (ok maybe more than a few). I’m sure Moms will multiple kids are laughing at this right now thinking I should just enjoy the break, am I right? Maybe I’ll feel that way when our family gets bigger but leaving him for the first time had me feeling so emotional. Mom life has definitely made me one big sap!

Ricky stayed home with my husband so I had peace of mind knowing he would be well taken care of. When I got home, I could tell my husband really enjoyed their boy bonding weekend which was really sweet.

Traveling (without baby) while Breastfeeding

I’m still breastfeeding Ricky so even though I only went for one night, I still had to bring my breast pump, storage bags, and a little cooler to bring my milk back…the things we do as moms! I was nervous about going through security with a pump and an ice pack, hoping they wouldn’t give me much trouble. So I want to share my experience with other Moms who may be going through the same thing.

Surprisingly, it was pretty easy! On the way there, all they did was a second check of my bag to take a look at the ice pack (they didn’t even need to see the pump) and I was good to go. On the way back, they opened up my cooler with the bottles of pumped milk and placed one in a bottle scanner to check it (in my research I didn’t find anything that said this would harm the breast milk). They didn’t have to open the container of milk which made me feel better. All in all, it was a good experience.

My Tips

If you plan on traveling with all your breastfeeding supplies, it’s totally doable! Here are a few tips I learned along the way:

• Even if you aren’t bringing any pumped milk with you (which was the case for me since I wasn’t traveling with my baby), bring a small cooler with an ice pack for the plane ride home.
• Pack your pump and cooler on the top of your carry on bag so it’s easily accessible just in case they need to see it.
• Look up and save TSA’s rules and procedures regarding breast milk on your phone just in case they give you a hard time.
• Before your bags get scanned, let them know you have a breast pump, ice pack, and pumped milk.
• You can ask them not to X-ray your cooler with the milk and instead do a second check of it (which they will have to do anyway). I didn’t realize this until after mine went through the X-ray machine but in doing research, I found that there are no negative effects on the milk. I found this article from What To Expect helpful. If you aren’t sure about something, always research and double check.

I hope you have a good experience the first time you fly with all your breastfeeding supplies (with or without your baby)! Feel free to reach out, I’m happy to share my experience in more detail. At the end of the day, all we can is our best!