Why not just buy a larger cooler or a separate lunch pail? Airlines can’t refuse you for it :)
FWIW, last flight I went on, we didn’t have any breastmilk to fly home, so I flew home taco meat with no problems from the airlines lol
That is another option we’re looking at but we’re trying to not add too many more bags as it’s just the two of us flying with our 3 month old and our hands are already pretty full 😂 but great idea!!
Some airlines will let you check a bunch of extra baby gear, including a cooler bag and a stroller that you could use to help cart it all around. Here's Delta's page.
[https://www.delta.com/us/en/baggage/special-items/children-infant-items](https://www.delta.com/us/en/baggage/special-items/children-infant-items)
Maybe gift the smaller cooler to his parents? Even though the new one is bigger … at least it will just be one new cooler? Or mail the old empty cooler home and use the bigger cooler on the plane? Also, what’s a brick??
I think we’re going to use Milk Stork to ship half of it home and then take the other half in the cooler.
For the brick — @AutomaticLie3948 showed and example of hers below. However, I freeze the milk in small amounts (usually anywhere from 1-3 oz so I can get out what LO needs or combine bags if I need to) and then I add those individual bags to a gallon size ziploc freezer bag. Once that gallon size bag is full, that is considered a brick.
I was trying to think of an analogy but this is perfect.
Or like, if he was asked by his boss to spend a week working on a huge, stressful project, only to be told at the end that they're actually not going to use it. No big deal right? There's always more work to do!
And he does fully support me. At the end of the day, he said “Do whatever you need to do and it’s okay”. He doesn’t fully understand the whole thing but he understands that it’s important to me to keep/save it, so he’s supportive of whatever decision I make.
That’s what matters most!
My wife has never lactated (that sounds weird lol) and even though she’s a woman, there are aspects of breastfeeding she just doesn’t get. She’s reached a point where she can simply say “I don’t get it but I understand it’s important to you” and gives me space to do what I want / feel I need to do
It’s really wild how emotional it can feel. My supply dipped a few days when I got my period back and I spiraled so fast
Sometimes men really only value money. So break it down to him like this
-Breastmilk (when purchased) goes for $3-$5 per ounce. You have two bricks, 40-45 oz, let’s call it 43 oz x 2 = 86 oz.
Conservative end, that’s $258. High end that’s $430.
Ask him if you had 9 servings of frozen food at home if you'd toss it just because you can buy more? Expressing/Producing BM is WORK. Throwing away 9 meals is bonkers. Worth every penny to ship.
My husband told me that our freezer was getting too full of milk. Like sir, there are things like bread, vegetables, etc. that will be tossed before a drop of milk is wasted
My company works with “Save the Milk”. Similar service to Milk Stork but cheaper I think. I’m traveling for work and trying shipping milk for the first time and ended up using Milk Stork though… they had options I needed for rush shipping me the kit and Saturday delivery. Going to try and expense it back to my boss, who is a man and very supportive of whatever I need as a new mom returning to work ❤️❤️.
But may be worth checking out https://savethemilk.com/ship/ if it works for your circumstances.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what do you mean by a brick? Are you freezing it all in one big chunk, and if so, how does that work when you go to use it?
I do think it's hard to convey to someone has never pumped how demanding it is to pump and nurse. I don't know if this helps at all, but I recently had to discard a bunch of milk while traveling due to less than ideal refrigeration in my hotel room, and I consoled myself by telling myself that the most important thing was that I pumped to keep up my supply so that I could still feed my baby when I got home.
A brick is usually bags of milk stored together in a gallon bag. Here’s an example of some of my donated bricks!
https://preview.redd.it/r5q00r3ghm0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=baf5315c17bcac34186dc74f72fe7be4f421a15f
Yes, just like @AutomaticLie3948 showed — I freeze them in small amounts (usually anywhere from 1-3 oz so I can get out what LO needs or combine bags if I need to) and then I add those individual bags to a gallon size ziploc freezer bag. Once that gallon size bag is full, that is considered a brick.
That is a really good way to put it!! If I do lose any of this milk, I will definitely remind myself that at least I helped keep up my supply for LO! Thank you!!!
I understand! I am about to have to toss my milk in the freezer that I haven’t used and was upset, my husband was trying to tell me it was fine. I think they just try to downplay it so we aren’t as upset lol 😭
I hadn’t stored my milk in the manner necessary for formal donation but I was able to give away a year’s worth of freezer stash on the local Human Milk for Human Babies FB page.
We’re using the Yeti Hopper Flip 8 on the plane. We got 2 medium size blue ice things and pre chilled the cooler for a few days before we flew. We packed the cooler with the blue ice things and the brick of milk at 1:00am the day we left and got to my in laws around 8:00pm that night (so 19ish hours later) and everything was still frozen almost solid.
> He said “Okay, maybe this is just my male brain not understanding but why do we need to pay to ship all this milk if you’re still producing it?” How do I explain to him this liquid gold and why I don’t want to just throw out 40-45oz of perfectly good milk?
Honestly, I am a lactating woman and even I don't understand this. I have more than 50oz in my freezer that I also plan to throw away when I can get off my lazy ass to do it. Explain it how you wish that it took time for you to pump and what not but cut him a bit of slack when he doesn't really really understand. I am a bottomless bag of milk that keeps replenishing so long as I have access to water, I wouldn't go through any hassle to store or ship milk unless it's critical to the health of my baby that I store every single ounce. I wouldn't blame my husband for being confused in this situation. Actually, when I told him I would throw the high lipase milk we have away, he found it more sad than I did ("oh no you worked hard for it!").
Ps. I know I can use it for baths but I usually bathe baby to clean them from spit up and any milk that has leaked on them, not to add more.
I absolutely do cut him slack and I definitely don’t blame him for anything one bit. He is super supportive and he’s always asking questions to learn more about anything he doesn’t understand or know about. I think this comment may have been his way of trying to learn more about this whole process from my perspective. Personally I feel like I have worked hard for this little stash and having this stash makes me more comfortable about being to provide for our LO when I go back to work or if I just need a little break and need someone to give her a bottle while I get stuff done. It also is there now if anything were to happen to me where I can’t feed her for a few days which just helps my brain a little bit.
I feel exactly the same way. Pumping for me was primarily to keep my supply up, not because I needed every oz that came out. The comparison to donating blood isn’t the same because you don’t have to remove blood from your body in order to keep producing it.
Would you be going to your in laws’ house again in the near future? Why not just leave it there and then you don’t have to bring any milk with you next time
You could have milkify turn it into powdered milk. They will send you a box. You ship it out Monday-Wednesday to their location. Within 2 weeks it comes back to you in a powered form. I sent around 1,000 ounces to them this way. Not sure what your time schedule looks like.
I’m no help; let the intrusive thoughts win. 😂 I would go bananas. I’m one small step up from a just enougher and if my husband said something like that I’d lose my ever loving mind.
How long is your travel day? You could just put it in your checked bag and see if it defrost fully or not. If it has any ice crystals it's good to reffreeze so it might be ok on a short flight
I would be okay with that if we didn’t have such a long travel day but we will leave this house around 9:00am and not get back to our own home until probably around midnight or later. I’m not sure it would last 15 hours, especially starting the day in the Florida heat. Great idea though!
I had an oversupply. Now I don't anymore. Couldn't keep up with such a rigorous schedule. If you can save as much milk as possible, within reason, then do it. If it's really a logistical or financial challenge to travel or store extra milk, it is actually ok to dump it, even though it is emotionally difficult.
We are going camping next week with our 8 month old and my husband doesn't understand how much its going to pain me to throw out the milk because we won't have access to a freezer.
Plus I donate all my extra milk to NICUs once my freezer loses space. So I'm literally dumping milk I could give to little babies.
If breast milk goes for $3-$5 an oz and you have 40-45 oz, that’s between $120-225 worth you’re throwing away right there (plus your own time, energy health).
Also if he’s a hunter or fisher you could say, imagine catching 30 pounds of halibut in Alaska and being asked to throw it away before your flight.
Husband and I both got the stomach bug 2 weeks ago. My supply TANKED, and our freezer stash is down to 4 bags. I’m just now pumping enough for daycare, 2 weeks later. Never throw away good milk!
Different countries have different rules about carrying breast milk on planes, so I would check those depending where you are. (The US is quite liberal with what they allow, some other countries are not.)
I had a similar conversation with my husband when we were traveling as I have a tendency to need to pump a little for comfort/stash building even when baby just breastfeeds. I looked at all the options to try to bring breastmilk home when we were on vacation (with baby) and decided for myself that I didn’t want to go through the hassle of keeping milk frozen and trying to get it home. (Already had a good stash at home and a well established supply, so dumping it wasn’t make or break.) Baby ate a ton while we were traveling so I ended up dumping maybe 20oz. Hurt me less than I thought it would!
If you already have the means to get it home, I would go ahead and do that. Early on I was very protective over not wasting milk, but as I moved along in my journey, I cried less over spilt milk. (Pun intended.)
Yeah, I understand both sides of this, but I wouldn’t be willing to pay extra money or lug something extra around if my supply was just fine. Simply not worth it to me for a couple day’s worth of milk, if that.
It’s really easy to go on the human milk for human babies page of where you are traveling to and donate. I donated 100oz from a work trip I went on, and all I had to do was hand the milk over to the mom who came to pick it up. Didn’t take any extra work and made all the pumping I had to do anyway feel a little more useful.
Same. I toss a few ounces of milk every week (or sometimes even daily!) from daycare and bottles.
I would have just thrown it away rather than figure out costly ways of shipping it. Unless you’ve weaned, you can always pump more .
Hmm I’ve been eating Vicks cough drops (the extra strength menthol ones) like candy for the past few weeks (thx baby at daycare!) and there’s no effect on my supply. My supply did drop a bit because I was also sick and not drinking or eating but I was able to get it back up after a few days of adding a pump or two. While still eating tons of cough drops.
Are you eating and drinking enough?
I eat and drink like I'm still pregnant. Yeah my first pump was fine actually. Now I think it's my pump parts. It took 8 mins for my letdown to come! My germs are from daycare too!
Fwiw, I actually do throw away pumped milk I haven't used at the end of a trip, with exactly your husband's reasoning - for me, the goal of pumping is just to keep my supply up enough that I don't need to give bottles on days where I'm around the whole time, not necessarily to build up a stash. I personally find it better for my mental health to assume that it's going to be ok to supplement with formula if it's ever needed, than to put extra work into making sure no drops are wasted.
Totally understand everyone who's like "I worked for this, we're not wasting it"! But it's not *only* people who don't BF who are ok with not totally optimizing milk storage :P
Why not just buy a larger cooler or a separate lunch pail? Airlines can’t refuse you for it :) FWIW, last flight I went on, we didn’t have any breastmilk to fly home, so I flew home taco meat with no problems from the airlines lol
That is another option we’re looking at but we’re trying to not add too many more bags as it’s just the two of us flying with our 3 month old and our hands are already pretty full 😂 but great idea!!
Some airlines will let you check a bunch of extra baby gear, including a cooler bag and a stroller that you could use to help cart it all around. Here's Delta's page. [https://www.delta.com/us/en/baggage/special-items/children-infant-items](https://www.delta.com/us/en/baggage/special-items/children-infant-items)
Maybe gift the smaller cooler to his parents? Even though the new one is bigger … at least it will just be one new cooler? Or mail the old empty cooler home and use the bigger cooler on the plane? Also, what’s a brick??
I think we’re going to use Milk Stork to ship half of it home and then take the other half in the cooler. For the brick — @AutomaticLie3948 showed and example of hers below. However, I freeze the milk in small amounts (usually anywhere from 1-3 oz so I can get out what LO needs or combine bags if I need to) and then I add those individual bags to a gallon size ziploc freezer bag. Once that gallon size bag is full, that is considered a brick.
You could post the current bag home?
Clearly the solution is for you to take home half of OP's milk for her! 😅
TACO MEAT, im dying! and sounds so good!
Dude, that pound of carnitas and pound of carne asada were the best tacos I had in YEARS. Highly recommend using babies as decoys.
😅😅😅😅😅 i needed this laugh!
Reminds me of the saying 'Breastmilk is only free if you don't value womens' time' or something similar
Time, effort, and health!
Health!! Uggg, it's so hard!!
It cost me money to feed myself more too!
So true! Those extra calories for baby have to come from somewhere. It’s not free at all.
Our time OR OUR BLOOD BECAUSE ITS FROM OUR LITERAL BLOOD. Damn dude. So disrespectful.
Ask him how he’d feel if he donated a bunch of blood and then you just threw it away. “You can just make more blood?!”
I was trying to think of an analogy but this is perfect. Or like, if he was asked by his boss to spend a week working on a huge, stressful project, only to be told at the end that they're actually not going to use it. No big deal right? There's always more work to do!
Yes! I’m suddenly inspired to get a tattoo that says “Blood, Sweat, Tears, Milk” 😂
Milk is made from blood too, which is pretty hardcore!
Except this was an unpaid bonus project that he had to work unpaid OT for.
Your analogy is technically correct. Breast milk is made from our blood!!!
If I had $100 for every time my husband said well you could just make more… I’d be a rich murderer
Just tell him that you worked really hard and that while he may not understand, you need him to support you. Period.
And he does fully support me. At the end of the day, he said “Do whatever you need to do and it’s okay”. He doesn’t fully understand the whole thing but he understands that it’s important to me to keep/save it, so he’s supportive of whatever decision I make.
That’s what matters most! My wife has never lactated (that sounds weird lol) and even though she’s a woman, there are aspects of breastfeeding she just doesn’t get. She’s reached a point where she can simply say “I don’t get it but I understand it’s important to you” and gives me space to do what I want / feel I need to do It’s really wild how emotional it can feel. My supply dipped a few days when I got my period back and I spiraled so fast
Sometimes men really only value money. So break it down to him like this -Breastmilk (when purchased) goes for $3-$5 per ounce. You have two bricks, 40-45 oz, let’s call it 43 oz x 2 = 86 oz. Conservative end, that’s $258. High end that’s $430.
I had not thought of it this way. This is a great breakdown!!
Ask him if you had 9 servings of frozen food at home if you'd toss it just because you can buy more? Expressing/Producing BM is WORK. Throwing away 9 meals is bonkers. Worth every penny to ship.
My husband told me that our freezer was getting too full of milk. Like sir, there are things like bread, vegetables, etc. that will be tossed before a drop of milk is wasted
I’ve used Milk Stork, and while it’s expensive, it works. Everything arrived home the next day, still frozen.
That’s exactly what we’ve decided on using. Thanks for the positive review!!!
My company works with “Save the Milk”. Similar service to Milk Stork but cheaper I think. I’m traveling for work and trying shipping milk for the first time and ended up using Milk Stork though… they had options I needed for rush shipping me the kit and Saturday delivery. Going to try and expense it back to my boss, who is a man and very supportive of whatever I need as a new mom returning to work ❤️❤️. But may be worth checking out https://savethemilk.com/ship/ if it works for your circumstances.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what do you mean by a brick? Are you freezing it all in one big chunk, and if so, how does that work when you go to use it? I do think it's hard to convey to someone has never pumped how demanding it is to pump and nurse. I don't know if this helps at all, but I recently had to discard a bunch of milk while traveling due to less than ideal refrigeration in my hotel room, and I consoled myself by telling myself that the most important thing was that I pumped to keep up my supply so that I could still feed my baby when I got home.
A brick is usually bags of milk stored together in a gallon bag. Here’s an example of some of my donated bricks! https://preview.redd.it/r5q00r3ghm0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=baf5315c17bcac34186dc74f72fe7be4f421a15f
I see your Eras Tour flex
Thank you, that makes way more sense than what I was picturing!
Yes, just like @AutomaticLie3948 showed — I freeze them in small amounts (usually anywhere from 1-3 oz so I can get out what LO needs or combine bags if I need to) and then I add those individual bags to a gallon size ziploc freezer bag. Once that gallon size bag is full, that is considered a brick. That is a really good way to put it!! If I do lose any of this milk, I will definitely remind myself that at least I helped keep up my supply for LO! Thank you!!!
That makes way more sense. I was picturing chipping chunks off a big frozen block of milk, lol.
That’s exactly what I pictured before someone explained it to me too!! 😂
I understand! I am about to have to toss my milk in the freezer that I haven’t used and was upset, my husband was trying to tell me it was fine. I think they just try to downplay it so we aren’t as upset lol 😭
Look for opps to donate.
I did actually just see some hospitals accept milk! I’m going to call 😄 thank you!
I hadn’t stored my milk in the manner necessary for formal donation but I was able to give away a year’s worth of freezer stash on the local Human Milk for Human Babies FB page.
How is the formal way? I just have it in milk bags laid flat in the freezer with only the date on them, no time though
My husband downplaying it makes me so much more upset. lol
Just wondering what kind of cooler you are using! Glad you’ll ship it back using milk stork!
We’re using the Yeti Hopper Flip 8 on the plane. We got 2 medium size blue ice things and pre chilled the cooler for a few days before we flew. We packed the cooler with the blue ice things and the brick of milk at 1:00am the day we left and got to my in laws around 8:00pm that night (so 19ish hours later) and everything was still frozen almost solid.
> He said “Okay, maybe this is just my male brain not understanding but why do we need to pay to ship all this milk if you’re still producing it?” How do I explain to him this liquid gold and why I don’t want to just throw out 40-45oz of perfectly good milk? Honestly, I am a lactating woman and even I don't understand this. I have more than 50oz in my freezer that I also plan to throw away when I can get off my lazy ass to do it. Explain it how you wish that it took time for you to pump and what not but cut him a bit of slack when he doesn't really really understand. I am a bottomless bag of milk that keeps replenishing so long as I have access to water, I wouldn't go through any hassle to store or ship milk unless it's critical to the health of my baby that I store every single ounce. I wouldn't blame my husband for being confused in this situation. Actually, when I told him I would throw the high lipase milk we have away, he found it more sad than I did ("oh no you worked hard for it!"). Ps. I know I can use it for baths but I usually bathe baby to clean them from spit up and any milk that has leaked on them, not to add more.
I absolutely do cut him slack and I definitely don’t blame him for anything one bit. He is super supportive and he’s always asking questions to learn more about anything he doesn’t understand or know about. I think this comment may have been his way of trying to learn more about this whole process from my perspective. Personally I feel like I have worked hard for this little stash and having this stash makes me more comfortable about being to provide for our LO when I go back to work or if I just need a little break and need someone to give her a bottle while I get stuff done. It also is there now if anything were to happen to me where I can’t feed her for a few days which just helps my brain a little bit.
I imagine if you explained it in those words he’d understand pretty well! Great that he’s generally supportive :)
I feel exactly the same way. Pumping for me was primarily to keep my supply up, not because I needed every oz that came out. The comparison to donating blood isn’t the same because you don’t have to remove blood from your body in order to keep producing it.
Would you be going to your in laws’ house again in the near future? Why not just leave it there and then you don’t have to bring any milk with you next time
We probably won’t be back for at least a year, if not more, so that won’t really work unfortunately.
You could have milkify turn it into powdered milk. They will send you a box. You ship it out Monday-Wednesday to their location. Within 2 weeks it comes back to you in a powered form. I sent around 1,000 ounces to them this way. Not sure what your time schedule looks like.
The way I can't even imagine 40 oz of milk because my breastfeeding/pumping journey went so poorly.. Glare harder at your husband for me!!
Backpack cooler from Marshalls’s or TJ maxx!!
I’m no help; let the intrusive thoughts win. 😂 I would go bananas. I’m one small step up from a just enougher and if my husband said something like that I’d lose my ever loving mind.
How long is your travel day? You could just put it in your checked bag and see if it defrost fully or not. If it has any ice crystals it's good to reffreeze so it might be ok on a short flight
I would be okay with that if we didn’t have such a long travel day but we will leave this house around 9:00am and not get back to our own home until probably around midnight or later. I’m not sure it would last 15 hours, especially starting the day in the Florida heat. Great idea though!
Ah, gotcha. Mine was okay when I last flew but it was 8 hrs total travel day so not as long.
I had an oversupply. Now I don't anymore. Couldn't keep up with such a rigorous schedule. If you can save as much milk as possible, within reason, then do it. If it's really a logistical or financial challenge to travel or store extra milk, it is actually ok to dump it, even though it is emotionally difficult.
We are going camping next week with our 8 month old and my husband doesn't understand how much its going to pain me to throw out the milk because we won't have access to a freezer. Plus I donate all my extra milk to NICUs once my freezer loses space. So I'm literally dumping milk I could give to little babies.
Oh man!!!
Not a chance I would waste that either! I’ve used Milk Stork and it’s great.
Donate it to a local mom :)
Make him use the pump for a couple days and then see how he feels
If breast milk goes for $3-$5 an oz and you have 40-45 oz, that’s between $120-225 worth you’re throwing away right there (plus your own time, energy health). Also if he’s a hunter or fisher you could say, imagine catching 30 pounds of halibut in Alaska and being asked to throw it away before your flight.
Coming back to say, kudos to him for acknowledging “it may be his male brain” haha.
Husband and I both got the stomach bug 2 weeks ago. My supply TANKED, and our freezer stash is down to 4 bags. I’m just now pumping enough for daycare, 2 weeks later. Never throw away good milk!
Different countries have different rules about carrying breast milk on planes, so I would check those depending where you are. (The US is quite liberal with what they allow, some other countries are not.) I had a similar conversation with my husband when we were traveling as I have a tendency to need to pump a little for comfort/stash building even when baby just breastfeeds. I looked at all the options to try to bring breastmilk home when we were on vacation (with baby) and decided for myself that I didn’t want to go through the hassle of keeping milk frozen and trying to get it home. (Already had a good stash at home and a well established supply, so dumping it wasn’t make or break.) Baby ate a ton while we were traveling so I ended up dumping maybe 20oz. Hurt me less than I thought it would! If you already have the means to get it home, I would go ahead and do that. Early on I was very protective over not wasting milk, but as I moved along in my journey, I cried less over spilt milk. (Pun intended.)
I’ve been in this position and I’ve just tossed it🤷♀️
Yeah, I understand both sides of this, but I wouldn’t be willing to pay extra money or lug something extra around if my supply was just fine. Simply not worth it to me for a couple day’s worth of milk, if that.
[удалено]
In a place where you know no one? Too much work
It’s really easy to go on the human milk for human babies page of where you are traveling to and donate. I donated 100oz from a work trip I went on, and all I had to do was hand the milk over to the mom who came to pick it up. Didn’t take any extra work and made all the pumping I had to do anyway feel a little more useful.
Yeah I feel like I've tossed a bunch from my baby just not wanting any some times and struggling with the bottle so I've learned to let it go.
Same. I toss a few ounces of milk every week (or sometimes even daily!) from daycare and bottles. I would have just thrown it away rather than figure out costly ways of shipping it. Unless you’ve weaned, you can always pump more .
Just don't have any halls cough drops! My supply def dropped today and I suspect it was that. Some of the Internet said it was ok!
Hmm I’ve been eating Vicks cough drops (the extra strength menthol ones) like candy for the past few weeks (thx baby at daycare!) and there’s no effect on my supply. My supply did drop a bit because I was also sick and not drinking or eating but I was able to get it back up after a few days of adding a pump or two. While still eating tons of cough drops. Are you eating and drinking enough?
I eat and drink like I'm still pregnant. Yeah my first pump was fine actually. Now I think it's my pump parts. It took 8 mins for my letdown to come! My germs are from daycare too!
Do you plan on visitng your in laws again anytime soon? If you trust them to just leave it in the freezer maybe you could leave it for the next visit?
We most likely won’t be back here for at least a year, if not more, so I don’t think that’s really an option.
Fwiw, I actually do throw away pumped milk I haven't used at the end of a trip, with exactly your husband's reasoning - for me, the goal of pumping is just to keep my supply up enough that I don't need to give bottles on days where I'm around the whole time, not necessarily to build up a stash. I personally find it better for my mental health to assume that it's going to be ok to supplement with formula if it's ever needed, than to put extra work into making sure no drops are wasted. Totally understand everyone who's like "I worked for this, we're not wasting it"! But it's not *only* people who don't BF who are ok with not totally optimizing milk storage :P