I’m doing some research for my upcoming trip. I really don’t think there will be any problems when I try to feed my son on the plane, but I want to be prepared just in case.

Unfortunately, United doesn’t have any posted policies on their site about allowing breastfeeding. I found some news stories from an incident in 2006 where United stated that their company policy allows breastfeeding on the plane. I would hope so, considering they encourage moms to feed their children during take-off and landing. I’d love to have something from them that I could print out and take with me, but I couldn’t find any references that I could show to any flight attendants.

I also couldn’t find anything on TSA’s site, except a note that breastfeeding moms can take quantities of breast milk and juice greater than 3 oz. if they declare them for inspection separately from their 1-quart zip bag of liquids. That’s good, but I’ll be traveling for 4 hours plus layovers and won’t really have a way to keep the milk cool. (I know you can keep milk up to 10 hours, but that would have to be freshly expressed. My flight leaves at 7 am and you’re crazy if you think I’m going to get up at 4 to pump.)

But I did find a listing that summarizes breastfeeding laws in the 50 states. And since they should have to follow the laws in the state that the flight originates in, I should be okay.

I really hope that prepping beforehand will mean that there are no hassles and I won’t have to worry about it.