It’s just after memorial day and summer travel season is beginning. Many of us will be flying with our nurslings this summer. Breastfeeding is actually very convenient for travelling – no worries about lugging formula, heating up bottles, and running out of food when your flight is delayed.
Still, travelling with kids has the potential to be stressful, so here are some tips for travelling while nursing, to make things easier for you.
Do you have other tips or suggestions? If so, please post them below in the comments so that other moms can benefit from your experience!
Airline travel tips for nursing moms:
- Drink! Carry a water bottle with you and remember to drink throughout the day. Airline travel is dehydrating, and the summer heat is too. You lose a lot of fluids while breastfeeding so it’s important for both your health and your milk supply to keep yourself well hydrated. Keep in mind that current TSA regulations do not permit you to carry your own water bottle past security, so keep money on hand to purchase water bottles in the gate area when travelling through the airport.
- Change before the flight: Change your baby’s diaper shortly before boarding. This will ensure that she is as comfortable as possible before boarding the plane. It will make things easier for you since the changing spaces in the aircraft bathrooms is tight.
- Dress for it: On the plane you will likely end up nursing in very close quarters to strangers, and this may be new to you. Make it easier on yourself by wearing either a nursing shirt, nursing cami, or nursing dress for the flight, or carry a privacy cover or light blanket with you. This not only offers privacy for you but will help your baby relax by being more secluded in an unfamiliar environment.
- Nurse during take-off: If you are flying, the changes in air pressure during take-off and landing can be uncomfortable for your child. Nurse them during take-off and landing to help ease the pressure on their ears.
- Pack some extras: Be sure to pack an extra outfit (or two!) for baby and an extra top for you in your diaper bag or easily accessible tote. Your nursling may spit up and if you have a long flight ahead that can be uncomfortable. Remember to pack a plastic bag to put soiled items in.
- Know your rights regarding transporting breastmilk: Be aware that on July 20, 2007, TSA modified the procedures associated with carrying breast milk through security checkpoints. Whether flying with our without your child, you are permitted to bring breast milk in quantities greater than three ounces on board, as long as you declare it for inspection at the security checkpoint.
- Consider a sling: It may be easier to carry your little one in a baby sling as opposed to pushing a stroller. This frees your hands up for managing carry-on luggage as well as dealing with other siblings. Once on board this will also help your baby stay close to you and relax, and it may be easier for him to sleep. Remember, however, that if your child is over two years old he is required to sit in his own seat and be buckled during flight.
- Control the germs: Remember that germs abound on airplanes. Wash your hands or use antibacterial wipes before nursing. Consider using them to wipe off the tray tables and armrests around you as well.
Nursing on an airplane presents some challenges, and has gotten some difficult press this past year. But in my own personal experience, nursing on airplanes has been a positive experience, and most passengers and personnel have been extremely supportive.
Enjoy your summer travels, and please share any additional travel tips you have by clicking on the comments link below.
Tags: airline travel, breastfeeing, nursing, tips for flying while breastfeeding, travel, travelling with baby
I would recommend a diaper for every hour of travel and to get the window seat if you can- more room for nursing and more privacy!!
Not only does nursing during takeoff help with pressure, but your little one (depending on just how little they are) might also fall asleep with all of the noise…and stay that way for awhile!
I just traveled with my 7 mo. old & 3 year old by myself & feeling like Superwoman! I carried the baby in a sling & put the 3 year old in a stroller. They both did great and it was much easier than I expected.
Don’t be rattled if you get looks from people while nursing on the plane – you have a right to feed/comfort your child, and if someone is bothered by it, that’s their problem, not yours. And would they really rather hear your little one cry and scream? I think not!
I just flew to Ohio from Colorado Nursing.. and it wasnt difficult.. just try to nurse after they are done talking on the speakerbox.. cause my son kept freaking out from the loud noise! Other then that he slept the whole way.. also if traveling by yourself.. try to get an empty seat for more room so little legs arnt kicking the person next to you! hehe
Just got back from flying with baby. It was better than expected, nursed him during take offs and landings, used nursing tops and a nursing cover. Only thing is baby managed to poop several times during the flight, both ways!
Nice to hear all the positive comments are nursing and flying. We’re taking our newborn on the plan next month I think she’ll do great.
Sometimes traveling with a baby, you can get a bulkhead seat, at the front of a section where there’s no-one sitting in front of you, if you ask and there isn’t someone who needs it more. There’s more leg room, and there’s no-one to bother either by putting a foot up to get into a good nursing position or by your baby kicking, banging etc. on the seat in front of you. Of course, you have to stow everything you bring overhead except a few small things that fit in a pocket, so its kind of a trade off.
nursing and flying are great…much better than nursing and riding in a car! We always allow extra time for those long drives…i think we’ll be camping along the way a lot this summer.
I’ve flown three times with my daughter so far and she’s only 9 months old. I make sure to wear a nursing shirt, I bring an empty water bottle and then ask one of the restaurants inside the gate area to fill it with water (which is free, instead of buying a water bottle in the airport), and I buy a seat for the baby as well so she can ride safely and comfortably in her carseat. Having a seat for her also provides more room and privacy for nursing on the plane.
One word of caution about using a sling for airline travel. I recently did while traveling alone with a baby and a five year old. In the airport it was great, but on take off and landing the stewardess insisted that I take my sleeping baby OUT of the sling. It was awful. I complained and she actually took out some sort of regulations handbook to prove to me she was not just trying to make my life difficult. But, clearly, that was exactly what she was doing.
We traveled on an airplane with our 4 week old to visit her grandparents in Florida and it went wonderfully well. She nursed during take off and landing and slept for the whole flight. She was also sleeping most of the time we carried her around the airport with our sling. Nursing makes traveling easy, especially with a nursing top.
Great tips! I have traveled quite a bit with my kids. I find a sling or wrap is wonderful for boarding and deplaning and also during the flight. I’ve had flight attendants ask me to take them out for take off and landing but I’ve also been able to keep them in for both, so you never know. And I personally like the aisle seat when traveling with a baby of any age since then I don’t have to bother anyone to get up if I need to change a diaper, go to the bathroom or just rock the baby.
Thanks for the tips
Can’t wait to see the how the blog develops….I will pass it on to other nursing mommas!
I also have the tip that if you have to pump (I had trouble breastfeeding so I was exclusively pumping) To see if you can find a mother’s lounge in the airport and to make sure that you pump before you board the plane. Though pumping can be done on the plane, I did it once, there is not much room to do so.
Also about the sling idea. It was really great idea until I had the same experience as Pamela above. I was wearing my daughter in a moby wrap and those are a lot harder to get your child out of then just a pocket sling so make sure that you can get you child in and out easily because you may have to, though I took four flights and only had to do it once.
If you are a nursing mom but have to fly without baby- you will need somewhere private to pump – Every airport has a separate handicap one-room bathroom next to the regular bathrooms with an outlet plug and a deadbolt on the door! After all, if you are trapped in an airport, you have eventually GOT to pump or you wil get very uncomfortable and anxious. When I travelled for work, this was always helpful to be able to slip into this virtually private bathroom. The Gold rooms, even if you have a membership, are not set up with private rooms to pull out your breast pumps.