Going on a trip without baby, pumping question

M

mintycat

Registered User
I will be going away on a 4 day trip without my 7 month old. I have enough milk in the freezer while I am away and she is already on solids twice a day. I will bring my electric and hand pump while I am away. I will try and arrange a freezer in my hotel room to freeze my stash to bring them back to HK. I heard you cannot hand carry them on the plane, but that I can check it in with my luggage. My question is how to transport them? Where can I buy a freezer bag? Will the milk go bad (going from freezer to freezer bag)? I know the luggage compartment in planes is cold.

Another question is how to sterilize the pump while I am at the hotel? My friend told me I can buy a kit from Mothercare that has a bag and a pill for sterilization. Do you know what its called?

Any other tips for pumping and storing milk while on vacation?
 
Thank you.

FOr Milton, do you just put a Milton tablet into a ziploc bag or box and then rinse?

Where can I buy the Fridge to go? If I ask for a freezer in the hotel to store the pumped milk, would they melt if I put it in the fridge to go afterwards? Or do you suggest that I just put the milk in the fridge at the hotel and don't need to ask for a freezer?
 
Do you need so much milk when you return? If not as transporting the milk will be troublesome you might consider pumping and dumping.

If you can easily use the milk quickly once home you could consider storing the milk in a fridge rather than a freezer. Human milk can be stored up to seven days in a fridge. And keeping milk cold while transporting it is easier than keeping it frozen.

If, however, you?d be happier freezing the milk, mothers I?ve known have used dry ice to pack the milk for aeroplane journeys. Usually you have to buy quite a lot of ice as they have a minimum amount they will deliver but generally it isn?t that expensive.

Milton tablets and liquid have the instructions of how much water to add for sterilizing on the packet.

Good luck with the trip,
SARAH
 
Hi Sarah

Thanks for your response. Actually I think I can pump and dump a bit and just take home about 10-15 oz. You are right, cold milk is easier to transport than frozen milk. The hotel is on a small island and I was told they have to call their regional office in order to transport dry ice to their hotel. I will just store the milk in a cooler.

Also, how many oz does a baby take at around 7 months? Mine is taking 7 oz in the morning at 7 am and 5 oz at 11 pm dreamfeed. I breastfeed her the rest of the day 3 times. She takes solids twice a day, only about 2 oz each time. One of those meals, I use 1.5 oz EBM to make rice cereal.

How much should I put aside for her each day?
 
Babies usually take about 28oz per day (24 hours). This is the same for all fully breastfed babies from around one month to six months when they start solids. They then tend to reduce the number of calories of milk by the number of calories of the solids. Thus making to total intake of calories around the same.

I would suggest working on 28 oz a day as she is taking so little solids at the moment. This would be about 6 oz of milk for each of the feeds. Usually we suggest feeding smaller amounts and then adding extra 1 oz lots if the baby is still hungry. So you could ask your baby?s caretaker to give 4 oz and then another 1 oz and then another 1 oz etc. This way if at one feed she only wants 4 oz you don?t waste any milk and it allows for a feed when she wants more. Having a break where the caretaker has to heat up a second lot of milk will give your baby a chance to indicate whether she really wants more or not.
 
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