I am traveling to visit my home state next week. But I am also pumping to build a stock when I return to work. Any recommendations on how to keep my milk frozen for when I drive back to my home? (6.5 hour is drive plus stops for baby!)
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Get a lunch bag with ice packs!
Dry ice is what my sil used when they came from 8 hrs away
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Dry ice. That’s what I used on my flight from New Orleans to TEXAS
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If it does go bad, save for milk baths!
freeze it flat and put it all stacked in a small ice chest completely covered with layers of ice, you may have to stop and buy ice as needed.
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How long are you staying. As long as you’re not there too long you could probably hold off on deep freezing the stash until you make it home so then you don’t have to worry about it potentially unthawing you need to just keep it on ice and cold. Once you get home you can freeze it as you usually would. Cuz if it unthaws at all it’s essentially unfreezeable again and would have to be used within a day.
Dry ice is a potential option if you have to freeze it. But you have to take great care with dry ice and whatnot.
Whenever I’ve travelled and pumped I just kept it refrigerated and chilled until I got home. But I also pump and store my milk in a jar until I’m ready to separate out my milk into bags by ozs and freeze.
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Look into freeze drying your milk. It turns your breast milk to powdered milk for long term storage and easier to travel with
Fresh pumped breastmilk can last 24hours in a cooler bag with ice packs or ice. So if you’re able to freeze it before hand it will be even better. If it does thaw on the drive back and still have the core intact you can refreeze in the freezer. If it’s completely thawed and still cold, you can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freeze flat. Pack tight. Fill the air gaps with wadded up plastic grocery bags. That’s good the milk bank has you ship it. That’s in a Styrofoam cooler. As long as it’s not fully thawed it counts as frozen.
You could also pack frozen water bottles around it.
Instead of buying n freezing fresh milk.buy long life milk.not sure how old is baby n if on formula or breadt fed or fresh milk.if baby I’d on fresh milk.stop at convenience store.buy a small bottle of fresh milk.ask the staff 2heat up 4u.feesh milk stays a long time when frozen.but if travel time you might have a bit of melts.n freeze again u can spoil or have very week fresh milk
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Ice and ice packs in a cooler bag
We used a mix of both ice and dry ice. Just recently done a 12 hour drive one way to Michigan and also on the way back we done a road trip(added up to over 20 hrs of driving on the way back) and stopped in a different state each day for 5 days straight. My milk survived it all! I also wrapped the inside of my cooler with aluminum foil which made a difference as well!
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Dry ice bag in cooler, freeze milk flat
They have coolers/freezers u can plug into ur car or outlet at home. Ww have driven to over 1600 miles still with frozen food
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They have coolers that plug into cigarette lighters
Yeti cooler, very expensive but they’re the best.