To Spain with formula, ready to feed or powder?

[AugustBabyBags]

Hi all, we’re off to Spain soon. Baby will be just over 6m then and is now fully formula fed (we’re delaying full weaning until we’re back). At home we use a Babybrezza (which I love) and DD1 was on cow’s milk by the time we travelled with her, so that was super easy.

We’re going for 7 nights (8 days) and I’m torn between:
– taking all ready to feed formula (bulky and heavy, but super simple)
– taking powder, which feels a bit faffy with boiling and cooling water when we’ve never done it away from home

She’s currently drinking about 150ml per feed, 5 to 6 times a day, and may well drink more in the heat. I’ve worked out we’d need around 32 bottles of ready to feed, but to allow for wastage or delays (and because they come in 6-packs) we’d probably take 36 bottles, which is about 9-10kg -ish.

We’ve got generous luggage allowance for a week (22kg hold each + 10kg hand luggage for 3 of us, baby doesn’t seem to have any allowance). We could potentially split it across our 3 checked bags. I’d prefer to keep hand luggage as light as possible, another potential post incoming on that 😅

Of course I know formula exists in Spain, but she’s on Kendamil as she really struggled with gas and spit up on the other two brands we tried, I’d rather not risk switching her while we’re away. It’s her holiday too, after all!

Has anyone done this? Is it ridiculous to lug it all as ready to feed? Or totally worth it for the ease?

Would love to hear what worked for you. Thank you!

Can you mix? Some ready made ones for during the day and morning and evening you do the powder in your hotel room?

If you are using a specific milk I would recommend taking the powder in your handluggage, you don't want to have a lost luggage and no milk.

I never tried it but I heard people ordering formula to pick up at a Boots behind security so you wouldn't have a potential issue with security asking you to open every single bottle and test it.

@reluctantbrit once you open a bottle of ready to feed it has to be drunk in 2hrs or be thrown away, surely they wouldn’t make us open every sealed bottle…?! 😬

I did consider taking powder but it’s the water boiling/cooling situation that I find hard to get my head around. The idea of trying to have a nice time relaxing on holiday but then boiling a kettle, waiting (what feels like) a lifetime waiting for it to cool before you can actually make up a bottle meanwhile baby is hungry 5-6 times a day (even just 3 time if we do rest to go on other times), just feels like a massive pain in the bum to be honest 😅

But we could take a tin in hand luggage as you make a good point about the potential for luggage

thank you

Could you buy a Nuby rapid cool? It’s really easy to use, I did find it made the bottle slightly too hot, however you are only waiting a few minutes versus ages for the kettle to cool down. Or I would put the bottle in a container of cold water to cool down.

Also, if you use the boiling water direct from the kettle to do a “hot shot” in the formula just enough to kill any potential bacteria in the formula, and then put the rest of water in the rapid cool to cool down to then mix with the hot shot in the bottle, you don’t need to sterilise the rapid cool, as just boiling water went in, if that makes sense. I found lots of videos on TikTok to describe how to do it properly.

When we went away we took tubs of formula, 3 tubs only needed 2, but put them in separate suitcases just incase, also took a few ready mades. We also took a perfect prep machine which really helped, but I understand some people don’t like using perfect preps because of concern of the temperature being hot enough. (I tested ours and it did get hot enough)

Can’t you buy ready to drink whilst you are there?

Hey op we've just returned from Greece.

We did a boots click and collect at the airport then bought ready made at the supermarket on the island.

You can boil a huge load of water at the start of each day, decant it into water containers and put it in the fridge - then you have water ready to use to make up bottles whenever, and can add a bit of boiling water straight from kettle to get it to the right temperature

Check and see if you can buy it there first

I’d probably do a combo- ready made for when you’re out and powder for when you’re at the hotel. You can get a ready to drink bottle immediately by doing a hot shot from the kettle then topping up with a baby friendly mineral water such as Evian (there’s usually a baby symbol on the label if the mineral content is ok for infants, Evian is definitely always ok but there will be other brands you can use too). I have also just skipped the boiled water entirely and made the bottles using only Evian but that would be contrary to the NHS ‘belt and braces’ advice even if it is what most other countries such as the US, Australia, most of Europe are advised to do.

Oooh I love this idea! Seems simple enough. I think Evian should be easy enough to find but Ive looked it up and the Spanish Brand Font Vella Junior should be safe on sodium content too so that’s good 👍🏽

Nuby rapid cool or tommee tippee do the same. Buy formula at the airport once you’re through security.

Thank you for all your suggestions. They’re helping me narrow down what might be right for us so thanks!

In answer to some, baby drinks Kendamill and I don’t want to change brands as she didn’t get on with others we’ve tried. I did look into whether we could find it where we’re going but although Kendamill is distributed to mainland Spain it doesn’t seem to always be readily available and we’re going to a small island resort so even less likely to be found there. I can’t risk not having what she needs so this is a no go unfortunately.

Re: click and collect after security. Has anyone done this successfully at Stansted?
I’ve had trouble with our local Boots not delivering or unpacking orders on time for delivery date, I’d be worried of getting to the desk and being told it’s not there 😰😅

@AugustBabyBags i flew from Stansted a couple weeks back - their website suggested to click and collect although I didn’t bother. Kendamil was just on the shelf (I bought no2 as well so was worried they wouldn’t have the selection but they did)

@TY78910 amazing, great to know, thank you! Between knowing this and some suggestions I might figure out the best way.
Just wanted to keep things as simple as they could possibly be as travelling with one kiddo was quite the (challenging) adventure, not sure how it’ll turn out with 2 😅

@AugustBabyBags just set yourself 0 expectations and you will be fine 🤣

Got to sing the rapid cool praises once again. You put your scoops in the bottle with a dash of boiling water (just enough to melt down the formula) and the rest of the water in the cooling flask - then you have freshly boiled and cooled down water in seconds.