Bringing 3days of EBM on a 5hr flight - advice?

Hi all,

My 8 month old is still fully breastfed and on solids as well. He is in day care 3 days a week and so he gets EBM. My first work trip away from my boys is coming up on 19/2 (sydney to perth) and I am going to pump while away and bring home the EBM. I have bought a good quality cooler bag, ice packs and more milk bags. I use the double medela freestyle pump and it is incredible.

Has anyone done this before? Any suggestions or advice?

One of my questions is: should I freeze the milk whilst away and bring it back frozen? Will it melt on the way home? It would probably be in a cooler bag for around 8hours. Or, if I don't freeze it, is 3 day old milk ok to then freeze once I have brought it home? Is it ok to give to my son? I would hate to pump and dump..

Should I take it on the plane with me
Or check it in with my luggage!? Knowing how warm Perth is at the moment I'm hesitant to leave it in my checked in luggage in case it sits on the Tarmac for a while... BUT.. The luggage hold is super cold whilst actually in the air..

If anyone has any experience doing this I would love to hear from you..

Thanks all!!!

xoxo

Never done it but my advice would be to freeze it, then wrap the frozen bags in bubble wrap and put in an esky bag with lots of frozen ice packs. Definatly take on as hand luggage, imagine if you checked it in and something heavy dropped on bag and spilt milk everywhere!

Good luck,

Freeze it as you go - and pack it with ice packs in the cooler pack. Then keep it in the fridge when you get it home and use it ASAP rather than putting it back in the freezer. Not sure that it matters whether you put it in your luggage or in the hold - either way if you are majorly delayed it will have to be thrown out.

I've flown a few times with a stash of EBM (from and to Perth :) ) and it's worked fine. I have the Medela cooler bag and ice brick (they came with my pumps) and my milk has stayed icy cold for a good 8-12 hours but not frozen. The Medela ice brick is amazing. It comes with the cooler bag and is moulded so four small Medela bottles fit snuggly around it. I'd highly recommend getting one if you can.

I take the milk on board with me (but keep it upright as I had a lid pop off due to the cabin pressure and I lost a feed!) as the airport is cool as is the cabin.

I did read somewhere once that you can freeze breast milk that's 3 days old but it's just not as nutritious as milk frozen within 24 hours. I did it a few times and the milk was fine - and still well received :lol:

Sing out if I can help with anything else. Good luck!

PS. I've taken frozen EBM on flights too to rotate my stash of milk but it's always been half defrosted at least on arrival.

As above, I've taken frozen EBM.. It stayed frozen for the whole time in transit (about 5 hours, so would have lasted longer) I checked it in, with ice packs and very tightly packed.

If you're really worried about it thawing you could look into using dry ice. Not sure how expensive it would be but I looked into it a few months ago when I was moving interstate and it was allowed on Virgin flights in a ventilated cooler.

If it were me I wouldn't freeze it before the trip. I've read that once milk has started to thaw (which would be extremely likely during the flight) it can't be refrozen and needs to be used within 24 hours. I don't imagine you could use 3 days worth in 24 hours..... Since it can last 5 days in a refrigerator I'd just keep it cold and then freeze when I got home (or use it).

Thanks all!

I'm thinking I might keep it refrigerated and then take it home with a few ice bricks so I can freeze it when I get home.

Taurean - I have that cooler bag and ice brick you are talking about but not sure if it would be big enough for 3 days worth of milk (1.2-1.5L possibly?!?).

Am going to do a trial run with bags of water and see how cold they are kept for 8hours. Will keep you posted!!

If you have the 6 pack it holds 1.5 litres. But if you usually night feed and find you're expressing in the night you might have much more than that.

I'm not sure how much you feed, but 1.2-1.5l doesn't sound like much for 3 days (depending on numbers of feeds). Things are different for me at the moment as I'm exclusively expressing 5-6 times a day to keep up my supply (plus a couple of breast feeds), but I can easily express 800ml a day on top of whatever DD2 takes whilst feeding.

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Thanks all!

I'm thinking I might keep it refrigerated and then take it home with a few ice bricks so I can freeze it when I get home.

Taurean - I have that cooler bag and ice brick you are talking about but not sure if it would be big enough for 3 days worth of milk (1.2-1.5L possibly?!?).

Am going to do a trial run with bags of water and see how cold they are kept for 8hours. Will keep you posted!!

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I've got two of them so that would work but yeah, one won't be quite big enough though. Still so handy though!

I emailed the person I was meeting while over in Perth to ask them about access to a private room to pump, storing milk in the fridge and putting ice bricks in the freezer. I was anxious about doing it because I haven't met this person yet and I felt like I was being very forward.

The woman emailed back and said she would accommodate me. Turns out she's a mama of an 18month old. Then proceeded to congratulate me on breastfeeding for 8 months!

I guess it pays to ask and now I don't feel as anxious about going. I really feel like I'll be able to pump and bring home all my milk! Yay!!

I have the ABA book 'Breastfeeding ... Naturally' and in the milk storage guidelines is says you can keep EBM for 3-5 days refrigerated (4 degrees or lower). I've often frozen EBM at day 3 or 4 and DD drinks it defrosted just fine. Just thought I'd add this so you know its ok not to freeze it immediately

Thanks MN.. I think I'm going to refrigerate it and freeze it when I get home.

Will let you know how I go!!

I'm on the last day if my trip. I've pumped around a litre of breast milk sitting in the fridge, ice bricks in the freezer ready to go. Hopefully if I pack it well the EBM will remain cold.

I'm worried that the bags will burst with the change in pressure. I've tried to get most of the air out of the milk bags but there are still bubbles. Does Anyone have experience with bringing the bags of EBM on a flight (instead of bottles)???

Pop a second bag around it just in case if you have brought spares. That should stop any leakages or bursting.

BR I have lots of EBM milk storage bags that I won't be using. I you want them they're all yours and you could double bag?? I'm not too far from the airport so depending on when your flight is we could make a handover work

Thanks lulu! I have enough bags to be able to double bag but thank you so much for thinking of me!!

Well you guys, I did it! Managed to transport 1.5L of EBM back from Perth!! It was crazy yesterday. Had my EBM all packed, on the plane, ready to go and then got told that we all had to get off cos of a brake problem. There was only one flight left for the day and I was lucky enough to get on that. But it meant that the EBM would be in the cooler bag for more hours then I anticipated.

Didn't end up double bagging. Flight attendant said the bags would be ok as long as the air was removed. Packed the cooler bag with ice packs and when I got home the EBM had been in the cooler bag for 11 hours and still icy cold!

I feel so proud of myself for making the effort.

Thanks everyone for your advice and support. :grouphug:

Nice work! Awesome :clap:

Well Done BR x

Well done!