Ff and long haul?

[pugh]

going to south Africa with a 2 yo&4mo. The latter is fomrula fed.

How do you do it? It is an overnight flight.

Do I sterilise the bottles (maybe6/7?) and take cartons and powder. Petrified of delyas etc.

Anyone a clue whether able to take cartons through customs? Also reserve some at terminal 5 Boots?

And pack boxes of powder& cartons in suitcase-is that ok?

How bout coming back? Any idea whether SA also has fluid restrictions? Should I buy milk there?

Sorry for silly questions but last time was br feeding.

Cheers!

I don't know directly, but I saw your thread hadn't been answered so thought I'd say what I could and at least bump it.

Others have advised on similar threads to go with cartons reserved at Boots picked up airside. I think the general consensus is that ready made is way better than powder.

Don't see why there would be restrictions on powder or cartons in your suitcase.

We flew to sa when dd was a year and ff,

Cartons etc in suitcase fine although watch weight and potential to leak. Afaik formula in sa was not dissimilar to here and I don't think there were liquid restrictions but this was 2 years ago.

You have to buy cartons airside (or open them at customs) . I would sterilise bottles and stock up (remember baby need extra on flight and other side as may be some time before you can get at your suitcase). If you take powder you can ask inboard for hot water and then use that/mineral water to mix to temperature (unless you can ask in advance for hot water to make up formula). Or ask someone in restaurant to fill your flask with hot water so you can make it up when you need .

It is doable - flew to south Africa hong kong and states while dd was formula fed but be prepared to have a big change bag full of bottles and formula

Oh and I always bought cartons and had powder as back up.

And eating out in sa with kids was a dream as people seemed ro love kids.

I have travelled short haul with formula fed babies. There are no restrictions on formula in hold luggage. I reserved cartons of formula and picked them up airside, I also made up two bottles in advance in case I was delayed before going through airside.

I had to taste the bottles; the 100ml limit on liquids doesn't apply to baby bottles. If you check with your airline and the airport in SA you should be able to find out how to best handle coming back but I have found that UK airports have the tightest restrictions on departure.

If it helps I ran out of formula when I was on holiday with a 4 month old this year and was able to swop to a different formula while I was there, she didn't notice at all

I think you could take the cartons in your suitcase for the way back as well.

You can take over the 100mls limit of liquid when it is baby food. My dd only drank cows milk when we flew which made it more complicated as we had to put it in the baby bottles to make it baby food rather than cartons of mild from the supermarket.

I had nine bottles of milk and I had to taste them at heathrow and at KL.

I wish she had been on formula as it would have been much easier to just get it at boots 'on the other side' as they say.

I have been delayed many times before I had my dc so I was really worried about that too. Take as much as you can so you don't have to worry about it. There's enough to think about without that as well!

Thanks everyone. Plan is:
Take about 6/7 bottles
Make up a couple in advance
Take a flask for hot water
Take cartons and container with powder

My concern re cartons of formula in the hold is the change in temp/pressure in case it either leaks or freeze?

pugh you should be fine with the cartons re leaks/freezes but just watch when opening the cartons - we had a bit of an accident with a carton of Five Alive , soaked the lovely man beside us

Good point.

But would cartons b okay in luggage?

Looking at SA shops I can't see cartons only powder for coming back...