how to cope with bottle feeding on a long haul flight

[boompi]

I am flying to Durban with my 3 mo dd in 10 days. The trip includes a 11 hour and a 1 hour flight and will be roughly 24 hours door to door. I usually breast feed but now give my daughter a bottle at 6 and at 10pm. I also always get poor milk supply when Im stressed/tired and given my fear of flying its going to be up there on stressful events!
I am concerned I wont have enough milk to do all my usual breast feeds and will have to give more bottles. DD however often acts like shes hungry and bobs off breast and then when I prepare and offer her a bottle she refuses it. So bottle has to be thrown away, washed and sterilised. How can I cope with this on a flight!!? The amount of formula/bottles I may need to carry is almost unlimitless. Can you wash/sterilise bottles on a plane? She wont take Avent teats either so the Via system is out (and guess I would need unlimited adapters too!)

Any tips or ideas? - getting really worried about this (and of course the fact that we take off at 6pm and she usually screams for an hour every evening at about that time....)

try these items, not sure if that helps?

bonkerz - the link just takes me to the boots page - what should i search for?
thanks

these

and this!

I think what Bonkerz is getting at is using one of those powder dispensers for the formula?

I would take a small quantity of powder or sachets and either a big bottle of cooled boiled water, or Evian. that minimises the powder problem, but not the bottle problem unfortunately. only way to get round the bottle problem that I can see is to use steribottles, but you can't easily shake up formula to make it in them, so you'ld probably have to take formula cartons along.

Will try disposibles - she is rather fussy about her teat though so may not work.
Thanks!

you can buy extra teats and just sterilise them and take with you to use in these bottles. The steri bottles are wide necked so fit alot of teats.

oh excellent - will try that.

Uk to Aus ... steri bottles and prepackaged formula in the ready made cartons

Aus to UK - no ready made formula available so I used a big evian bottle - formula in the dispenser thingy in correct scoop amounts and had a few steri bottles i had kept for the journey over.

Saved faffing about with sterilsing whatever... Did have one of her bottles filled with water for take off....

As to the other worries - remember your priority is your daughter - the other passengers are not your concern - if they are getting antsy or whatever just remind yourself that you never have to see them again and they don't matter... focus on your little one....

Have you tried the Dr Browns or B Free teats? They are softer than Avent. I think they should fit with the Steri bottles as they are made to fit wide neck bottles.

Be warned - Dr Brown's leak at altitude. You'll need to loosen the tops and keep them upright. I'd go for Tesco economy bottles and lots of boxes of made up formula. Keep them in sep zip top bags if you're still really keen on sterile stuff at that age. It;'s worth having more than you need for your own peace of mind. I never had much luck with steribots - always cross threaded them then they leaked. With any luck she'll sleep all the way and you'll be absolutely fine.

how about freezing EBM and bringing it with you? Bring some sterilised bottles too

UK to Greece (driving, towing a boat - took 4.5 days) - did the whole avent disposable bottle thing, with cartons. worked out how many cartons I would need (plus a couple per day for emergencies) for the journey there and back.
you need a tupperware box thing and milton tablets, plus all the washing up stuff, if you want to sterilise as you go (that's what I did, but it was longer, and we had places to stay where I could do the washing up!)
good luck

The thing is, she may be unhappy and unsettled in flight. The landings and take-offs will make her want more comfort. She may just be happiest just breastfeeding a lot.

In which case, just take a lot of water for yourself. I'm pretty sure stress doesn't cause low milk supply, but it can certainly slow let-down. So work on your yoga-type breathing and relaxation, to help with the flight, and to speed up your let-down if you get tense.

(Sorry, I'm useless on the sterilising etc questions.)

Hi Boompi

When I flew to Durban I used the Steri bottles and remade forumla. You can't get ready made formula in SA so take some extra cartons for your return flight. Carrying boiled water and mixing formula on the flight is a real pain, extra weight to carry and difficult when using one hand(tried this too). Alternatively, just carry your usual bottles which you've sterilised at home.

Try not to stress about the flight too much, babies at her age are real transportable and the motion will most probably soothe her. I travelled to Durban 3 times on my own with ds between 4wks and 8mnths and each time it went well and I stressed about it unnecessarily. DS actually slept better on the flight than he did at home.

Enjoy your trip. Very .

Gone to Cape Town in March and took 2 of DD's normal bottles, filled with water and about 4 Steri bottles. I messured off the formula, because she used to drink Soya (don't make ready made ones (as far as I know)) and asked the staff to mix and warm it for me. Once the lid is on the bottle, thats it, you can't get in!!! I one flight attendant brought me the water over with the lid already on and I could not add the formula. It was lovely otherwise and would really recommend it to anybody. THe teats are nice and soft as well. Baby will drink anything if they are really hungry....
Take some spare ones in your luggage for the return flight. Good Luck. BRING SOME SUNSHINE WITH YOU PLEASE!!!!!!!! Missing all my family out there

Oh oh oh, on take off and landing, let her suck on something, boob, bottle, dummy, whatever and she will not get sore(popped) ears.

SO who is from SOUTH AFRICA then????

ME. Durban

I'm from Oudtshoorn (National Arts Festival are held there). I'm settled in Cambs now.

The other problem is other people often make the milk too hot - mine got used to the way it comes at a very early age - much better than cooling a bottle while baby screams! Did Bahamas at that age (and NY earlier) and baby slept nearly all the way.

I used steribottles and readymade formula cartons. You can try and see if your baby will take ready made formula at room temperature as it will make it easier not haveing to warm them. Also, most babies I know, no matter how fussy, seem to be ok with the steribottle teat. Oh, and steribottles are not resusable ( once you have screwed the top on, it's hard to take it off again) so I cannot see how you can put another teat on anyway.

I also got dd1 used to room temperature formula so she did not need it heated and in fact came to prefer that rather than warm milk.

My dd is happy with room temp milk - made sure of that early on! And with premade so maybe will go with that option. Can you tear them open? Coz I wont be able to take scissors/knife etc on board!
Good tip that they dont seel premade in SA.
Im from Durban and this will be my first xmas with my family in 7 years so v excited!

boompi - have you thought about weaning your dd off the bottles at 6pm and 10pm? To me it sounds far easier to breastfeed on a long haul flight than bottle feed. When I went to Florida when DD was 8 months old she fed a lot more than normal which kepy her quiet (which the other passengers appreciated) and also really boosted my supply making her really settled when we were on holiday.
As far as stress goes, once you are over the stress of taking off you will soon settle into the flight. Breastfeeding releases calming hormones which may actually make the flight more enjoyable.

Faffing about with bottles, water and formula would be so much more of a hassle IMO. Just a thought...

I can tear them with 2 hands but stewardess will do it for you with scissors