Bombs in breast milk?

Sometimes, even when you follow all the rules, you still get nailed.

That's the message the Transportation Security Administration sent to business travelers earlier this week in Las Vegas when Security agents at McCarran International Airport forced a nursing mother to throw out breast milk she had pumped — apparently thinking it was some kind of security threat.

Nico Melendez, the TSA's West Coast spokesman, apologized for the mistake and said agents mishandled the situation. The traveler, Rachel Popplewell, had packaged the milk in three-ounce containers in compliance with rules the agency put in place last summer after British authorities discovered a terrorist plot to destroy U.S.-bound airplanes using liquid explosives.

Popplewell said the agents told her they couldn't let her through with the milk because she wasn't toting a baby with her to prove her intentions.

Is this a textbook example of a complete lack of common sense, or what? Even the TSA must be able to figure out that the only reason women pump milk is to use it when they can't be there in person, such as, on a business trip (Popplewell planned to bring her milk to her 9-month-old son in Orange County, Calif., after a one-day trip to a footwear tradeshow).

As outraged as Popplewell and other business travelers may be, there's also other groups to which the TSA should apologize. TSA, take it from another Mom: You do not want to tick off breastfeeding advocacy groups like La Leche League. These women are militant and they will eat your lunch. They are hard enough on women who can't or won't breastfeed. I can only imagine what they are plotting for airport security.

Milk-filled water balloons? Squirt guns? Stay tuned.

Write to: Barbara Correa at bboydstoncorrea@yahoo.com