How to Fly with Breast Milk: A TSA Safe Guide for Traveling Moms

3 months post partum I was asked to fly to Vegas for a work trip. I had been on maternity leave up to that point, and was excited to get put my career mom hat back on. I immediately said yes, but then absolute fear and dread set in. How was I going to safely (copy) get my milk back home.

I had read horror stories of women trying to clear TSA only to be turned away or asked to check their milk. There was absolutely no way that I was going to risk checking my milk for it to be lost. Priceless is the only way we as moms can explain the value put on our milk. The airline could do nothing to fix it, if lost.

So I started doing research. Here are my 3 big takeaways:

1. Quantities greater than 3.4 ounces are allowed in carry-on baggage and do not need to fit within a quart-sized bag. This means there is no limit to the amount of breast milk you can bring with you in a carry on.
2. Your child or infant does not need to be present or traveling with you
3. The milk can be fresh or frozen

DOES MY BREASTMILK BAG COUNT AS MY CARRYON?

No! This is considered medically necessary liquids. This also applies to the ice packs / or “cooling accessories”. I also included my breast pump and storage bags. Most domestic airlines allow passengers to bring medically necessary equipment as an additional carry-on item without incurring extra fees. I would still check with your airline ahead of time.

HOW SHOULD I TRANSPORT? (COPY) MY MILK?

I brought back just over 200oz, and on average, 5oz – 7oz in each plastic bag. I used the **Medela Easy Pour Breastmilk Storage Bags** and put them inside this **Freezable Breastmilk Cooler.** I ordered 5, but ended up only using 4. (I would highly recommend freezing for 24 hours before use). I was able to place about 50oz of milk in each of these coolers. They can be used for bottles as well. I really liked that these coolers compact down when not in use, which meant less space used on the trip down.

TSA does recommend that breast milk be transported in clear, translucent bottles and not plastic bags or pouches. For me, I wanted to freeze my milk in case something happened, so bottles were out of the question, as I wasn’t going to keep a stash of frozen bottles in my freezer.

WHEN YOU ARRIVE AT TSA:

Inform the TSA agent that you have breastmilk with you before you go through the screening. You have the right to decline your milk go through x-ray if you prefer. TSA claims that X-ray machines do not adversely affect food or medicines, but I still chose to opt-out and did not have my milk go through x-ray. This did mean I had to go through some additional testing.

HOW DO THEY TEST YOUR MILK?

If you refuse the Xray like I did, TSA will take your milk for additional testing. They opened every frozen cooler I had of breast milk (which I didn’t love since that did let out cold air), and did swabs at random of a few of my frozen milk pouches.

Recommendation: (COPY)

Freeze all of your milk if you can. I had 2 bags of milk that I pumped that morning so I didn’t have time to freeze it. It made the process a bit longer, as the TSA agent made me open one of those bags to waft a test strip above it. If the milk is frozen, they told me they do not do that additional testing. The TSA agent told me it makes the process much faster and less time consuming / invasive if all the liquid is frozen.

This is what TSA says: Liquids in plastic bags or pouches may not be able to be screened by Bottle Liquid Scanners, and you may be asked to open them (if feasible) for alternate screening such as Explosive Trace Detection and Vapor Analysis for the presence of liquid explosives. Screening will never include placing anything into the medically necessary liquid. When they asked me to open my bag of milk, I thought they were going to stick the strip INTO my milk. They quickly assured me that was not the case.

How Much Time Should I Add For Screening?

It only took me an additional 10 minutes of screening time to my TSA security check. The process was simple, and went much faster than I expected.

Did My Milk Make It? (Copy?)

Yes! The whole travel day was 8 hours, and most of my milk was still completely frozen. The bags on the outside were starting to thaw, but very minimally and definitely within the safety zone, so I was able to refreeze all of my milk with no incident.

What gave me peace of mind in this was having read that partially thawed milk can be refrozen. Here’s a general rule of thumb.

• **Partial Thaw:**If the milk is still slushy and contains ice crystals, you can refreeze it.
• **Complete Thaw:**Once all ice crystals have melted, the milk is considered completely thawed.
• **Refreezing Thawed Milk:**After being completely thawed, breast milk should not be refrozen.
• Storage of Thawed Milk: Thawed breast milk can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, according to the CDC.

Will I do anything differently the next time?

I had a duffle bag that was extremely long and awkward, that made packing everything complicated. Plus I had to carry it and I didn’t think about how HEAVY liquid is. So I will use my Away Luggage Carry On to transport my milk the next time, especially knowing I can use this as a medically necessary additional carry on. Amazon Basics does have an Away Dupe that is much less expensive.