Tips for Traveling with Baby

From the BreastReading Blog's "The Breastfeeding Mother's Quick Guide to Surviving the Holidays"

Tips for Traveling with Baby

From plotting out breastfeeding areas on airport and train-station maps, to planning your highway stops around breastfeeding-friendly rest-areas, thinking your stay through thoroughly can help you avoid uncomfortable nursing situations.

First, for domestic travel, check out your destinations laws about breastfeeding in public...for international travel, search the laws online or ask your hosts to help you find them.

Tips for traveling by air or train:

•When booking your travel, let your agent or airline personnel know that youll be traveling with a baby. Although separate seats are hard to come by during holiday travel, they may be able to offer you more private seating and give you specific instructions about traveling with strollers and car seats.

•Consider your fellow travelers. While you shouldn't ever need to apologize for your baby's "behavior", nicely acknowledge that your children will be patented during the trip and let others know you appreciate their patience with things like diapers and feeds. Visit this super neat website for airline traveling with baby.

•If possible, plan layovers with enough time to fully prepare your family for the next leg of the flight. This includes having enough time to walk clear across the airport, change diapers, feed baby, feed siblings, feed yourself, etc. For families that need them, many airports and train stations have mother-rooms and family rooms for when parenting moments require privacy. You can find a list of many of these here.

• If you're a family who bottlefeeds, get to know the rules of traveling with breastmilk or formula.If you're traveling internationally, remember to check with the layover countries or destination country's' equivalent to the United States' TSA or customs, since rules may different.

If you're traveling by car:

• When possible, plan your trip with plenty of time to care for and feed your baby as frequently as you would when you're at home. Trying to go long stretches without nursing can cause breast discomfort, plugged ducts, and a baby who may be too hungry to focus when you do finally stop to feed. In addition, waiting too long to stop and change diapers can lead to uncomfortable baby bums.

• Consider mapping out your drive and knowing where the most comfortable rest areas or truck stops for you and your family.

• Never feed a baby in a moving car, no matter how much time youre trying to save...and this goes without saying but never breastfeed and drive!

Quick tip Milk-Storage Tips

• Any cup of clean warm water can serve as a milk warmer. Any clean cup of ice can serve as a place to chill bottles of pumped milk or formula.

• If you plan on traveling with expressed milk, practice milk-storage prior to your trip. Traveling with breastmilk in closed containers can be less messy than traveling with milk storage bags.

Something to think about...

If you're traveling far from home, or for a long period of time, it's a good idea to map out your destination's breastfeeding resources. Consider plugging in to a breastfeeding community by joining local online groups (but let the admins know your intentions since you don't want to seem like a troll, lol). Knowing where to score extra pump parts and where to seek expert support is important, too--and I say this based on the many holiday calls I get from families traveling to my city who call just to find out where they can find pump parts that were lost or forgotten at home. Also, if you're a mom whose travel occurs amid breastfeeding issues, make sure to know where your lactation resources are. I have cared for many a client of other lactation consultants while they traveled to SA for holidays or vacation.
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Did you find these topics helpful? What other holiday survival advice could you use? And if you have some to share, please comment below!

I wish you and your babies the absolute breast this holiday season! 🎄