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Original poster

formula milk at the airport

47 replies

mamserafina · 06/08/2008 00:13

not sure I am in the right forum, but I am watching another thread in this section so I will post here.

Does anybody know about the new rules re travelling with formula by plane?
Is it worth for me to have a few ready made cartoons of SMA gold for 4 months old baby or will they ask me to throw them away???

I know I can buy them at Boots ones I am through the departure lounge, but I am paranoid they might have run out and I am left with no milk for the rest of the day...

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

blueskythinker · 06/08/2008 21:06

Have had to open baby jars & taste them though, and also petit filous (wtf - how are you supposed to keep them after that? - Now I bring the Sainsbury's pouches of fromage frais so you can screw the lid back on.)

LooseyC · 06/08/2008 21:21

It is all bonkers but in Gatwick they made us (well DH did it!) taste the boiled water we brought as an emergency, but then we bought cartons airside. Boots had tons - all types. The security lady said that in her opinion all this sterilising was a waste of time as babies chew everything anyway(!).

On the way back flying from Toulouse no-one gave a damn. I think you just have to worry about UK and US really.

Stretfordmum · 07/08/2008 22:29

I've tried the range of ways to take the bottles and milk through customs (generally sterilised bottles but didn't put water in them - used bottled Evian water as it's low sodium and you can get it in most countries). The security of milk and baby items is different outside of the UK as most countries seemed to have an exception for babyfood and milk.

The best things I did was:

buy and use M&S clear washbag set (£5 for 3 bags), the largest I put the bottles, the middle I used for nappies and small packet of wipes - great for pulling out of the bag on the plane and the smallest i used for sachets of calpol and small bottles of medicine. This meant when I got to the security I could easily pull out the bottles and milk and the smaller bag of medicine and put these through the xray machine.

2)Order cartons through Boots (I checked with them to see what brands they sold and ordered some over the phone)

SMA (and other overseas brands)sachets of formula milk which was much easier to carry through customs/airports than a container with powder measured into it. (I also put a few of these in each of our jean pockets so that I knew we had enough for at least one or two bottles - which were not picked up through the bleep security machine you walk through)

SazzlesA · 07/08/2008 22:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

chefswife · 08/08/2008 06:15

haven't yet experienced formula; just pregnant with first. the info here is good to know though. last june i went through gatwick going to vancouver and they let me through with 4 giant sandwiches, 4 bananas, 2 grapefruit, a bag of dried prunes and a box of granola bars... but no to the two small plastic bottles of innocent smoothies. she pulled them aside and said we couldn't take them. i said, well, we'll drink them now then. i got he feeling she was hoping to keep them herself.

chefswife · 08/08/2008 06:18

i have lots of friends that work as airline stewards... they don't 'boil' water. it's just very hot.

chefswife · 08/08/2008 06:19

and in order for water to be sterile to be used to sterilize, it needs to boil for at least 3 minutes.

quaranta · 08/08/2008 06:48

Every journey is different - been asked to taste - and to chuck away and had cartons ignored... Never taken boiled water because they do seem consitently strict about chucking away mineral water bottles. It's rather annoying that there is no consistency but I do feel sorry for them and second Sazzles A - i want them to know what is on board every single aircraft.

shrinkingsagpuss · 08/08/2008 06:56

cartons are fine.

if you have a bottle, they will ask you to taste it.

I got through in Malta with a huge botle of dquash too - as it was hot and I had small children!

Caz10 · 08/08/2008 07:33

doesn't the cooled boiled water and powder thing go against the way the say you are meant to make up formula now?

shrinkingsagpuss · 08/08/2008 07:54

you can put cartons in your luggage - do you really need lots for the journey? sorry if I've missed something.
I did also have to taste the jar of baby food I brought.
I've given cooled boiled water plus ff to my dd for ages, whenever we are out... and I often make milk up in advance too - she's still with us.

StealthPolarBear · 08/08/2008 11:14

Fair enough but surely they can't insist people take risks! You may be willing to make it up in a way that's not recommended, or not sterilise but if they expect you to do that then there's something wrong.

shrinkingsagpuss · 08/08/2008 11:56

if you are travelling with children you have to make compromises. And given the chance of risks (as I percieve them) of "unsterislised" milk, versus someone else faking milk and blowing up the plane... I think I'd go with the former.

threestars · 08/08/2008 16:10

I took both sterislised water (added an extra fluid ounce to each bottle to allow for tasting, so when powder added later it wouldn't be too concentrated) and cartons.
I was asked to taste both.
No big deal though I'd worried about it beforehand. I had 3 bottles of water, and 3 cartons, just for a 2 hours flight! But it WAS with Ryan Air, so I was anticipating big delays...
Have a good holiday.

bergentulip · 08/08/2008 16:19

LOL out contaminating the bottle by sipping a bit....

Sorry. Just a bit ott for me.

StealthPolarBear · 08/08/2008 16:42

fine. but the guidelines are there. surely it's a bit much for an airport's procedures to completely contradict them? choice is the parents', no-one else's. not saying we should ignore security, just that i am amazed they don't have one procedure in place that handles it, instead of doing it locally. they all seem to agree on the 100ml/clear plastic bag thing, why not this?
fine to say "i never sterilised and dcs are fine" NOT ok to assume people are being silly because they don't agree. i have had a dc with quite serious D&V - not nice

blackrock · 10/08/2008 21:14

i have flown to Spain and Austria and have had to taste my son's milk on both occasions leaving from Gatwick, but was allowed to take it on board with no problem. The cartons of juice had to be thrown away.... i would have opened them and poured them into a cup, but had run out of cups!

hashim · 10/08/2008 22:16

I recently travelled from Liverpool to Limouge in france and did the return journey a week later. I had 2 ready made bottles with me which I had to test by drinking myself. On the way out, i just pretended, by holding the bottle to my lips. BUT 'testing' on the way back some SMA accidently eeked out. I was promptly sick all over the floor of customs. I was so embarrassed... in front of lots of other holiday makers...They still let me on the plane!

UmSami · 11/08/2008 02:22

Have flown from Manc on many occaisions...
Have never permitted me to take cartons of pre mix on the plane...have forced me to open jars of food.
Now I just expect them to ask me to taste everything which is v annoying, when you have a picky eater and a 7 hour flight ahead of you...boots just don't cut it.
Apparantly, you are only allowed to take formula in a bottle, no other containers...so take boiled water but measure out more so you can taste it (take a cup so you dont have to drink from bottle) and sachets of powder.
Baby food, I've normally managed to sweet talk them by saying look it will spoil if I open it so you choose one and I'll taste that one...but leave the jars in your bag...if you take them out they'll be more likely to make you open them all...it puts them on the spot...
Also if you want to carry any baby meds in your hand luggage make sure they are under 250mls (please double check that volume - the smallest size of medised is fine!)
Good luck!

penona · 11/08/2008 09:07

Just got back from flight through Gatwick, and did the same trip earlier in the year.
I was not allowed to take pre-mix formula as over 100mls. I could take pre-measured powder though, which I did. I bought bottled water the other side (be careful of the sodium content needs to be less than 10mg/l and eg Brecon carreg is very high. Evian is fine), and warmed it through using a cup of hot water from a coffee bar. On one occasion Boots had loads of the pre-mix Aptimil so we boguht that, on the other they had none. they also sometimes had baby food, not always.

I was asked to tasts a packet of ellas kitchen puree as was over 100ml, so the next time we took Plum Foods pots as they are all 100ml so no need to open. My husband was not asked to taste his packet in his bag though!

It can be quite random so I would plan for the worst case scenario. You can also get calpol in 5ml sachets in Boots so they are fine to carry on board.

gladders · 11/08/2008 11:06

we had cartons confiscated and have always been asked to try every bottle of water. never a problem with taking powder on though.

Ambi · 16/08/2008 15:31

I took 3 cartons, 2 empty bottles and a jar of food through manchester. Had to open the jar to taste and all cartons, so just decanted one and left the other 2. Boots had hundreds of cartons, so just picked up some more. On the way back, Tenerife staff didn't bother about the cartons. I would do this again.

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