Formula planning on long haul flight

[JT81]

Hi all!

We are due to travel on a 10 hour flight to Florida next month with a 5 month old. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to Bf so she is exclusively formula fed (aptimal). How have people managed to take long haul flights (with liquid restrictions though security) and lack of anywhere to sterilise bottles? Airline says no microwave on plane (to sterilise bottles). Do you just bring excess bottles for the journey and lots of readymade formula cartons? I’ve read about bottle liners but have no idea how these would work with the Tommee tippee bottles and you’d still need fresh teets! Someone mentioned using Milton tablets (cold water sterilising) - again not sure practically how this works on a plane - and also wont the bottles stink of Milton?! Not even able to rinse off as reverses the sterilising!
Help needed! Am stressing about how I will ensure I have enough milk and sterilised bottles for this long haul flight. Any recommendations gratefully received :-)

I went on a 24 hr flight (2 flights including lay over) brought bottles from home. Brought water (previously boiled) from home to last me all the way there (i made sure to bring extra)

And never use boiled water from the plane. The pipes it comes out of can make am adult really sick so def not suitable for baby. Just give it room temp.
All good.
Security wanted to give me a hard time about the amount of water but as soon as i pointed out it is for my baby it was all good.

I pre ordered ready made formula to the boots in the airport then took enough steralised bottles from home to last me the flight. As pp said i would not give the water from the plane to a baby.

We took an empty mini thermos through and got boiling water from the pub before we boarded

I took some powdered formula with me for the extended period plus a couple of freshly made bottles for the flight and stocked up at the airport on cartoned ready made formula as a backup for a direct 13hr flight. There was no issue 🙂

Best of luck OP, I have a long haul flight to Mexico with a 3 month old coming up in January. Be sure to request a bassinet seat on the flight!

Milton travel steriliser might help you. It fits one bottle at a time and you just add water and tablet and it lasts 24hrs I think. You could fill after security and then just wash bottles out at any tap ( even that on plane), and then bottle in the solution to kill off anything

www.milton-tm.com/en/consumer/products/solo-travel-steriliser

We always just use ready made when flying. So much easier and give at room temperature.

We took DD on the same trip at that the exact same age and had an amazing time. For the flight I just sterilised the bottles before we left the house and then decanted the pre-made formula into them. To be honest DD would have turned her nose up at an unfamiliar bottle/teat like those steribottles, so definitely do a test run before you go if that's what you go with.

When we were in our hotel room before we went out we poured the freshly boiled water into the bottles. Then when we were out and about we added the pre-measured powder to the water as required. By the stage she needed it the water had cooled but we were lucky in that (at that age) she wasn't fussy about milk temperature.

Definitely pack enough formula (powder) for the whole trip. There are no familiar brands like Aptamil/Cow&Gate/HiPP, and it's also SO expensive- you're talking double the price of what we pay in the UK. Interestingly enough their guidelines do not require the use of near-boiling water in the preparation of formula.

If you're staying in a hotel make sure you bring your own kettle as they're just not really a "thing" over there- even if you're in a villa you might need to, as a lot of self catering places only have the stovetop kettles which are more faff. We got our travel kettle for less than a tenner.

Hi. Same as pp we did the USA at 5 months too.
Ready made can be taken through security.
Took enough sterilised bottles for flight
Took so many ready made bottles for flight there and back and to use out snd about. We did find a kettle to buy but if you can take your own mini one. And take powder.
Also nappies are expensive there!

Aptamil have recently started producing their formula in tablet form, just add to water and shake. Good to take for travelling or as a back up to ready made. You can get them at Boots.

You can preorder cartons from Boots after airport security which is the best option as per guidelines. As airline staff I would never use boiling water from a plane. I'd rather take my chances with pre boiled water in a sterlised bottle and adding powder to it as needed if the baby won't take ready made. I'd add an extra ounce per bottle as you can be asked to taste up to 50% of what you bring (water or formula, including sealed cartons). You can always pour out an ounce if not. Take formula in sterlised, pre measured cartons. I know this is against current guidelines though. It wasn't when my children were small not so long ago though I BF so have never had to do it myself. The main point is don't use boiling water from the plane, the risks from that are much worse than not sterilising powder.

Oh yes we could take liquids on a flight when DD was little so we had cartons. I think the flight attendants had them too 😃

However many cartons you think you need, take extra (and then another one just for emergencies!!) we only flew short haul when DD was tiny but she got through so much milk on the flight. Apologies if you are already aware but someone else mentioned about car seats, UK and US car seat laws are different and UK seats don’t meet the requirements most of the time :-( been researching this a lot ahead of our holiday next year!

Just take the ready made bottles/cartons and decant into clean bottles as needed. I imagine the plane will have a fridge you can store the bottle of ready-made in once you’ve opened it?

Don’t see the point in taking cooled boiled water as unless the water is hot (70 degrees) when the powder is added it doesn’t make a jot of difference to the cleanliness/safety of the formula - but thankfully it seems you are already aware of that OP.

Have a great trip

There won’t be fridge access on a plane. Nor is there a microwave.

I think we all understand that powder isn’t sterile unless hot water is used. However, without access to proper facilities I would consider it a lower risk than using boiling water from the plane (crew never drink this themselves for good reason) or bottled water (not previously boiled and can be high in sodium).

I have over answered what you have asked OP, as you can use cartons but it’s a very frequently asked topic and others search and take advice from it too and not all babies will take ready made. By 5 months my LO was cruising around the furniture and crawling all over, probably crewing things that had been on the floor so I would be less stringent with rules than with a newborn.

@JT81 well I would of just asked them for boiled water from the kettle or whatever (presuming it’s normal boiled water) then add it to your powder then add the cooled boiled water you brought with you (same as the tommee tippee machine does) but if their boiled water isn’t the same as boiled waiter on dry land maybe don’t 😂 pre-prepared is probably safest then you know what you’re giving them. Could always get boiling water to heat it up in on the flight

Just checked how long our flight is after seeing this 🙈 It’s only 2 and a half hours, although there’s check in time etc too to add on and another hour or two at the other side before getting to the hotel so will probably be about 6/7 from our house to the hotel. Just going to hope he’ll take the pre-made stuff by then!