Flying long haul Oz to UK with ff baby - how do it?

[mm22bys]

Hi,

I'll be flying from Oz to Heathrow via Singapore with a 5 month old who is ff.

Rules in / out of Oz prohibit carrying more than 100ml of fluid on plane.

Total travel is around 24 hours.

I'd love some advice from others who've travelled long haul recently with a ff'ed baby...

thx

can you take powder? what formula do you use, some well single serve sachets. or you can buy tommee tippee thingybobs to pre-measure the powder.

You can get baby food and formula into the plane as long as you put the liquids in transparent bags to pass through the security check.

There are a lot of people who advise carrying formula cartons to avoid the hassle of the mixing up. I got a few of self sterilising bottles from Mothercare, which worked fine (washed them with handsoap during the stopovers but asked a restaurant to pop them in the microwave for a couple of minutes).

HTH

I haven't travelled with a formula fed baby recently but I did travel by plane a couple of weeks ago. Someone on MN at the time gave me that advice to check with BAA and I found their website provided me with all the info I needed at the time for hand luggage etc.

From memory the 100ml thing, you can have more than one container with 100ml of fluid in it, however how many containers in total I'm not sure. Also there is allowances made for having a baby on board but I didn't pay much attention to these as I was not travelling with a baby, very helpful I know.

I take about 6-7 200ml cartons without a problem. As long as they are in transparent ziplock plastic bags (and you have both baby and cartons on view ) you should be fine

i don't understand why they would want you to open the cartons of formula and put it in a bottle!

We did exactly the same flight with a 7 month old ff baby You can actually take any amount of baby milk on board. I took water and powder and mixed on board.

Think that they want to be able to see what is in the container. There was another thread yesterday about melsy wanting to go to NY and what she could tke on board.
You an take one plastic bag and mulitple 100ml containers within the clear plastic bag (which can be picked up at the airport).

Pooka, not all airports provide the clear bags, so good idea to take them with you.

As with any profession there are some people who take their tasks too seriously (I had a woman at the security check point opening and smelling all my toiletries bag long before the restricitions for liquids were brought in, at the end her boss told her to hurry up and she apologised because it was her first day!, and obviously she had been trying to impress the supervisor! )

BTW, you are no longer asked to "taste" the liquids.

Australia changed its regulations on 31 March - might be worth calling the airline to ask. We saw masses of stuff being refused and discarded at the security point as we went through from Adelaide to Singapore on Sunday.

Thanks for all your advice, it is a confusing situation - Australia has only tightened its regulations recently (March 31)....

I had rung the airline before my DH flew back to Heathrow on Sunday, and they confirmed that I would be limited to carrying only 100ml in any container.

They also told me that they would not be able to clean bottles on the plane, but would be able to provide water.

I think I'll take about 8 clean bottles, and as many of those pre-measured formula containers as necessary, and hope that the water they claim is sterile actually is!

With my other DC, when he was on formula I was still able to take the pre-made formula in tetrapacks. They were the days....

Thx again, if I find out definitive information I'll post on here....but I bet it will still depend on the day how strict the customs / immigration people actually are! (coming back from Naples we had three bottles of water, we were asked repeatedly if they were "for the baby" (nudge nudge wink wink), they weren't, but the customs officials were so insistent that one was "for the baby" that they let us through with one bottle...

Thx

If you are worried about water (and I would be as I think the water on planes is manky), either buy a bottle of evian or other low salt mineral water to make bottles up with after security, or take an empty thermos flask and ask a coffee shop to fill it with boiling water for you after security.

Second Orange's advice on buying the water after the security check. Water provided at the plane is either too cold or mean in quantity.

I don't think you will have any problem travelling from the UK until the next stop over, as the security check would be done under the UK's own restrictions (unless the company decides to have a random second check up at the gates). New containers will be OK, we fly abroad very often with a severely allergic child who has to carry food for all the trip and yes, it's more of a hassle in security because he is not a baby anymore and they check us as potential terrorists, but so far they have never asked us to bin the containers or any of his medicines, the only thing they insist on is in using the plastic bags all the way there). We normally take about 2 litres of liquids.

It may be a problem coming back, but then you can get formula in powder and mix it at the plane. You can get in plenty of clean empty bottles to cover for the duration of the trip if you are worried about sterilising but you may take a tiny container with fairy to wash them onboard (obviously not sterilising per se but as long as you wash the bottles as soon as they are empty there shouldn't be a problem). I have only started using the little cartons since DS was diagnosed but all the time DS was on formula we did it this way.

The problem is with flying in / out of Australia.

As from March 31, you cannot take liquids on the plane, in containers that can contain greater than 100ml.

This includes buying water in bottles at the airport after security.

Case in point - we bought a bottle of water at Changi airport and we, along with 1/2 of the people in the final gate security, had to bin our bottled water, even though we had a receipt from the airport.

If anybody can direct me to a website that says any different please do so!

I think you may be right mm22bys - we had to bin our airport bought water too. Final security is at the gate - after which there is just the lovely cattle mustering area with insufficient chairs and no toilets or water.

you can take baby milk though, honest

Source?

google sydney airport website. or don't believe me. but i did fly in and out of sydney very recently and had no problem with ready made milk and a thermos of hot water for the baby.

Oranges was that on an international flight after the 31 March new rules?

yes. do you want flight number and seats too?

Oh sorry oranges - just re-read my message and can see that it looked a bit short and rude! Thanks for the reply. Just trying to advise friend with baby for her flight and getting conflicting advice everywhere.

its okay. I was just getting tired at getting questions barked at me when I was trying to help. I took cool water in bottles, hot water in a thermos and powdered milk and had no problems. They just asked me what was in each container.They really, really don't expect you to dehydrate your child inflight.

Thx for advice Oranges.

I am back in UK now and my experience was to take about 7 clean bottles, and formula in sachets. I didn't take my own water (we wee 30 hrs door to door) so used airline water which they were happy to heat for me.

I combination-fed, and all was fine. DS did have two golden showers though, and my biggest hassle was almost running out of sleepsuits for him!

Thx,

Oops should have read!

We WERE....