Leaving exclusively breast fed baby for a day - help!

[Harrietsmum2015]

I'm leaving my exclusively breastfed baby with my mum while we go to the NFL in London. She will be 12 weeks by then. She takes a bottle of expressed ok so I'm not worried about that and we are doing a practice day first. I know I'll have to pump whilst I'm there but looking for some practical suggestions on how I can keep the expressed milk. Anyone any ideas/suggestions on how I can keep the milk cool for +12 hours and how I can sterilise the pump on the go. My pump has batteries so can take it with me. We are driving there and back from Sheffield. Really don't to bin the milk as I will have used all my freezer store being away. TIA.

I wouldn't worry about sterilising the pump in between. Buy a cool bag and freezer packs and keep the milk and all the pump parts that contact milk in there.

Pump will be fine for a day. Just sore the parts that come into contact with the milk in a freezer bag when not in use in the cool bag.

Don't go. A twelve week old baby is even more important than the NFL.

Sluicing the pump through with hot water will keep it clean enough. You can buy a car fridge like this one and use cool blocks in a cool bag when you aren't in the car.

Great thanks for the constructive comments. Yes my baby is more important than the NFL but the question was regarding feeding not my personal choices regarding childcare. When I want advice on that I'll post a separate thread.

I stored pump parts in a zip lock sandwich bag alongside bottles of milk in the cool bag.

Medela do some wipes for cleaning pump parts in between uses if you want.

I'd be too wimpy to leave my twelve week old too though.

The above was what I did when back at work expressing.

I found that without access to a fridge/freezer the best way to keep milk cool is to get 2 insulated picnic bags or boxes, big and small. Put the small bag inside the big one. Get loads of freezer blocks...like 20....and freeze them for a long time before you go. Put some of them in the inner bag and some in the outer bag. Put the milk in the inner bag. Bear in mind if you plan to freeze the milk that it won't keep as long in the freezer if it hasn't been kept as cool as usual before freezing. I always fed the milk to baby a few hours after storing it like this as I did this when I was traveling with the baby I was expressing for (instead of breastfeeding directly).

Would it make sense to mark the milk packets so that if you end up not being able to keep it as cool as you'd like, you could identify the first ones?

And bring spare batteries for the pump!

I would honestly just work an extra pumping session in every day leading up and afterwards and then dump the milk you pump on the day.

I would definitely ring 111, they are brilliant for this sort of thing and will reassure you. It sounds like there's nothing wrong but it's nice to hear that from a professional! I put off calling them the first time but it's really easy and now I do it all the time.

Can't you take the baby? I took my son to his first match in the U.S. At about that age. It's pretty normal there.

huffle was that tounge in cheek?

OP. Yes, cool bag, freezer blocks. Pump will be fine if you keep it cool between sessions.
Recommend feeding baby from a bottle with the trip expressed milk, and pumping to replace those feeds for freezing.

Enjoy the game.

Second post was wrong thread!

I was back at work when ds was 16 weeks old and EBF (only 4 months maternity leave back then) and regularly had to go to London for the day. I just used to take my hand pump and a couple of plastic bags and ds never seemed to suffer. After each express,I would just keep the pump in its own plastic bag.

I agree with huffle if you're not in desperate need for the milk, I'd just tip it. It'll be enough of a ball ache carting the pump about without all the other stuff required to keep the milk safe. I know it seems like a waste but you'll enjoy your day more