I only chose to do very short 3 day business trips before Gavin turned 10 months old.
The longest I was away after that was a 5 day trip to Japan and I was exclusively breastfeeding at that time. I was able to express 40 packs of milk which I have started to save 2.5 mos before my departure. However, during the trip, I pumped and dumped milk.
I was only able to bring back the milk I expressed on my way back to Manila.
In my next trip to a nearby Asian country, I tried to store milk at the hotel mini ref.
I had blue ice with me and a small cooler wherein I stored milk going back to Manila.
Since I only brought a small cooler, I had to throw my extra chilled milk because it didn't fit the bag anymore. I also hand carried everything inside the plane.
During our family vacation in London, I learned that they have to examine each expressed milk if it's going with you as a hand carry. That will be a tedious task if they are to examine 15+ packs.
In my next long haul trip, there was no mini ref at the hotel.
Not all hotels at the outskirts of UK would have one per room.
I tried to request for one and good thing that the hotel was able to provide :)
This is my big cooler bag:
These are my different kinds of blue ice :)
On the last day of my trip, I was scheduled a full day meeting at the office then to travel to the airport straight away in the evening. I brought my stash of milk which I stored together in two large ziplock containers to the office. I placed these on the ref and I froze all my stash of blue ice with me.
After the meeting, I placed everything in my big cooler bag and I included it inside my checked in baggage. Note that I was only on a 3 day business trip so chilling the milk and not freezing it was okay. I timed the time traveling to airport, flight time, stop over time and amount of time to reach my house ipad it was roundabout 24 hours. The blue ice will still be able to keep everything chilled in 24 hours. When I arrived at the house, the milk was still cold and I was able to feed my son for the next two days with the milk :)
I was also able to express milk while in flight and the flight attendants of Cathay were nice enough to give me ice to chill my freshly expressed milk. I had placed my milk inside a big zip lock then I placed the ice outside another big zip lock so the milk does not touch the ice directly.
Storing milk while traveling is really a lot of work that entails time and effort.
I recommend that you try it, breastmilk is priceless, no matter how few you manage to bring home.
I am now mix feeding my son as he is drinking 5 bottles of breastmilk per day and the rest of his bottles are from the lactose free formula since he developed allergies from cow's milk.
My milk supply is not as plenty as the previous months, but I do my best to express whatever I still can to nourish him :). As they say, breast is best!
*you can buy th Chicco bottle disinfectant so you don't need to sterilize.
*or you can just wash the spare parts in very hot water at your hotel
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