Bottle feeding when on holiday in turkey??

[rachndan]

Hi all

We are off to Turkey with our daughter in April and she will be 18mo by then (dreading the flight).

But we are wondering what to do about her bottle of milk whilst away. She currently feeds herself a bottle of full fat cows milk first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

What would u do about milk and going on holiday?

We cant take the steamer, we cant take loads of bottles and cant take milk and cant guarantee that the hotel will have full fat milk.

She has never had follow on formula but even if we took some we couldnt sterilise the bottles daily (due to having a microwaveable steriliser).

Also how do we entertain on the flight? She doesnt have her own seat.

Thanks

HI

I would have thought that at 18 months old she shouldn't need sterilised bottles anyway but can understand that you don't want her picking up unknown bugs/germs from just rinsing her bottles/drinking cups in Turkish tap water. Will you have kettle facilities so that you can just rinse out the bottles/cups with freshly boiled water?

You could alternatively take sterilising tablets (which you can buy from Boots if I recall) and just use a clean sink/big tub (you could take a clean ice-cream tub with you to use) to sterilise/clean a bottle/drinking cup for her? Then rinse thoroughly with bottled water or again freshly boiled water....

You could take a few of the boxes of milk which are long-life? Could you try her on those before you go on holiday (you have a few months) to see if she will adapt to the different taste?

Could she not just have a break from milk - don't think it's going to harm her for life if she doesn't have as much as she normally does? Or does she use her bottle of milk to settle to sleep...?

sorry not sure if that's totally helpful - hasn't ever been an issue for us as we never travelled abroad when DCs were little. DW has been to Turkey and says she can't actually remember if as adults they avoided tap water like the plague even for brushing teeth....

Turkey i have been to 3 or 4 times and u only touch tap water for brushing teeth. There should be a kettle but if not its all inclusive so plenty of bottled water there so could use that to clean them etc.

She has the morning one just out of habit as she has her actual food breakfast just after. So we could skip that and go straight down to breakfast. The night one she has as we settle her for the night. So unsure on that. Would we be able to take actual long life milk into another country? Id also be concerned that airport security may flag up the tub of powdered milk.

So bottles can be washed with bottled water still unsure on the milk side though?

I now realise (and you can tell how long it is since I last flew) that you're not allowed to take liquids on flights are you (or have those rules been relaxed).

The easiest solution might be to contact your travel company and ask them what people do? They should know. It might be that you can easily buy long-life milk or milk powder in the supermarkets which should be fine?

DW and a friend once took washing powder into Hong Kong (yes, I know they were naive but they were travelling on a very limited budget and wouldn't have dreamed of throwing it away) but as it was only washing powder, the customs guy didn't make an issue of it. Presumably if the powdered milk is sealed it should be less of an issue but you might just have to accept that they might open it.

Sure someone with relevant and recent experience will come along to offer more helpful advice shortly!

For sterilising bottles (which I would do overseas for a young child) - Milton Solo Travel Steriliser. I did a 35+ hour journey with a four week old recently and it was the business! Also used it when the baby was in hospital.

It only costs a tenner from Mothercare, you can use Milton tabs or microwave to sterilise, and it fits most bottles (ie takes one at a time). Sorry can't link as I'm on my phone.

As for milk - if you want to take follow-on formula but don't want to take a whole tub, why not take the amount you need (eg 20 bottles' worth) in a ziplock bag inside a plastic box?

I would suggest you take 2-3 bottles or sippy cups, Milton tabs, and the Milton Travel Steriliser I mentioned in my previous post. As for milk, now that I think about it why not just buy a tub of follow on formula over there? It's basically all the same stuff across different brands.

The Tetra Pak cartons/bottles of ready-made formula are sometimes exempt from security requirements - depends on who you get. If you're flying out of Heathrow you can order baby milk to pick up after security from Boots - look on the Heathrow website.

I always think it's a shame you can't get 200ml UHT cartons of whole milk for this purpose! I think I would just give milk at breakfast time and not worry about the evening - maybe give water in a bottle. It will be a different routine etc on holiday and she may well be fine. Or might she take those ready made formula cartons instead?

Oh and we take a bit of washing up liquid and a brush in our luggage for washing bottles, bibs and cups - have never bothered taking steriliser. Often these places have one you can use, anyway.

Infant formula is allowed in hand luggage on flights, I brought about 24 cartons of ready-made aptimel on a flight from Dublin to London no problem.