Flying to California

[Roskva]

Has anyone flown to the US with a formula fed baby? Hubby's family live in California, and we will need to visit soon, but I am concerned about the hand luggage restrictions, particularly the requirement to taste baby milk - opened cartons are no longer sterile, and need to be refrigerated. I'd love to know how any of you have managed.

Cabin bags MAY contain the following:

Essential medicines in liquid form, in quantities of less than 50ml.

Baby milk and liquid baby food (the contents of each bottle MUST be tasted by the accompanying guardian).

What we did at the time was take tins of powdered formula milk with us and put these in our suitcase (we took enough for the duration of the holiday). Did this several times and had no problems at all with this arrangement.

Re the plane get one or two of those round containers that has a Y shaped divider in them (think Mothercare do them) - you could get three formula measured feeds into one of those then all you then have to do is pour the feed into the bottle containing water. Afterwards I used to rinse the bottle out.

Hope the above helps a bit.

Attila, were you allowed to take your own water on board or did you rely on water provided by the cabin crew?

I would speak to the airline you are flyong with and explain the situation. At the time my son was small such restrictions were not in place so could take water on board.

A friend of mine was allowed to taken unopened bottles of mineral water on a flight from France to Britain last month, but the same airline would not let MIL take mineral water on board in San Francisco. I think the restrictions to the US are imposed by the authorities, not by the airlines.

Hi CFFJ - where in California is Milpitas?

We flew from LHR to JFK last month - no problems on the way out. We took bottles with sterile water in them and separate powder - tasted the water at security and the jars of baby food we had (once on board we had the cabin crew refrigerate them).

Coming back, we flew Dulles to LHR and the swines on security wouldn't let us take the water. We argued but were told in no uncertain terms "this is not Heathrow". We were told to buy mineral water after security (at Dulles you can buy duty frees as they are taken down to the door of the aircraft for you to collect there - not entirely sure this is a good thing but there you go), but my husband explained that mineral water isn't the best thing for babies due to the mineral content. Deaf ears. Then we were told "my child has tap water - it won't kill your baby". Also they weren't remotely interested in the jars of food.

We were totally furious but had no choice. The cabin crew gave us a bottle of Highland Spring on board which we used but my little girl was a bit sick and I blame that to be honest.

I don't mind the security but I really wish they'd have some degree of consistency across the board. It I'd have known the Dulles rules I'd have saved some cartons for the flight as they would have been fine with us not opening them.

It's a crazy world...

The security rules are going to deter people from travelling, but those who want to cause trouble will still find ways of doing so!

BTW, my French friend's midwife recommended Evian mineral water for making up formula - apparently the mineral content is not harmful to babies, so I'm getting dd used to it so that there is something I can always use in an emergency.

I recently booked a flight to San Fran with Virgin- they said i can take food and milk, but at present, either i or my fella must taste it before boarding.

....does anybody know whether you can take mineral bottled water on baord ? We don't have babies but my DS and DD both 5 and under love to keep drinking water to prevent their ears popping...I know they provide you with water but it never seems enough to me...... CaliforniafamousFANGjo (love the name btw !) I used to visit San jose when I had a "proper job" in semiconductor sales...obviously before DS and DD arrived.....I use to love travelling across to California, it's one of the very few things that I miss about "proper" work !!!

Steppy, it seems that on flights within Europe airlines have the discretion to let you take bottled water, but on flights from the US the security people won't let you.

Haven't read whole thread, but we just went to California with British Airways and took cartons of ready made formula and didn't have to open them and taste them. On the way back took made up bottles with an ice pack and didn't have to taste those either.