Travelling to Spain with refrigerated antibiotics for a child

[Cheerio123]

My son has been prescribed co-amoxiclav today by urgent care centre and it has to be kept refrigerated. Tricky bit is we’re going on holiday tomorrow. We’re only going to Spain so not a long flight, but will be more or less a full day by the time we get to our final destination. I didn’t go to the hospital (DH took him), but I just called the hospital pharmacy to ask for advice but they are closed. The receptionist offered to speak to her for me, but just came back saying it has to be refrigerated and no other advice. I have tried calling around all pharmacies I know of and they are either closed or not answering. Has anyone travelled with medications in a cool bag with ice packs? I’m not sure how long the ice packs will keep it at the right temperature for. I’m thinking maybe I could ask for ice on the plane to add to the cool bag?

You could try phoning the airport for advice on what they will let you take through security. Ice packs might not be allowed through all security scanners - airports are a mix of 2 litres okay and leave in bag, or 100ml max in 1litre bag taken out of bag in my experience. Alternatively do you have a thermos that is big enough for you to put the bottle in whole (not decanted). It would keep the meds cool (esp if you leave the thermos open in the fridge overnight before putting the bottle in). You can the take it out to show at security, and empty thermos are allowed - though you are likely to be stopped as security can’t see through them)

Call 111 and ask for a new prescription but for it not to be made up.

Will it last the whole week? Often they have use by dates of a few days then you get another prescription?

This ask for dry powder and make it up when you get there.

Get a frio pack it will keep it cold for about 24-48 hours

Agree - husband uses them for insulin, they’re great

Whatever solution you choose for the transport, as soon as you land, go to a pharmacy with your GHIC and prescription, and ask for their advice. They will be able to tell you if you can still trust the contents of your cold pack, and if necessary arrange for a fresh supply.

Also consider getting a fit-to-fly certificate for your DS, in case some jobsworth assumes that needing refrigerated antibiotics means he has tuberculosis or something.

To be fair co-amoxiclav is the big guns of antibiotics, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to question whether the child is fit to fly. Our nursery used to not let anyone attend within the first 48 hours of antibiotics to give them time to work on the infection, that always seemed fairly reasonable to me. Calling someone a “jobsworth” for trying to prevent the spread of infection in a tin can with recycled air where everyone’s practically on top of each other is uncalled for. I really feel for airline staff.

https://www.caa.co.uk/air-passengers/about-your-trip/health-and-medical/travelling-with-medicines-mobility-and-medical-equipment/

I used to work in a paediatric hospital pharmacy, and on occasion we supplied the original bottles of dry mix; with instructions for reconstituting. Is this a possibility?

I've done this before when my son was on antibiotics. I took one made up bottle and one powered. He had a chest infection. They barely checked tbh.

I travel with insulin and my DD has highly temperature sensitive medication for MS, and recently travelled 20 hours to Columbia. She has special thermos type thing that keeps medicine below 8 degrees for 36 hours from Amazon but too late for you to order now. I have a cool bag and put the gel packs in the fridge or freezer. You can probably get one at Boots or Superdrug. Be careful not to have any medication pressed directly against the cold pack - wrap in something (if in a box that’s fine). This will be adequate for your trip to Spain. Also take the prescription, and put the medicine in your hand luggage. And you could ask for ice on the plane if need be (take a ziplock bag to put it in).
Does your accommodation have a fridge?

We had this last year. My daughter had to have a mega dose of antibiotics- think like 20 bottles worth just before flying. We got one bottle made up and then the rest dry. We called the airline and they gave us special assistance and an extra bag. You also need to check your insurance. We had to pay an extra £60 to cover the condition but wanted to do that for our own peace of mind.

Thanks everyone for your replies, for some reason I didn’t get any notifications about this thread so I assumed nobody had replied 🙈

Due to the short notice we didn’t have time to get another unmixed bottle, that would have been the ideal solution. In the end I packed it into a cool bag with loads of ice packs (with the bottle in the box so it didn’t touch) and it seemed to still be cold when we arrived. I put it in the fridge as soon as we got here. We flew from Gatwick where they have relaxed the rules about liquids, and thankfully they were fine with both the meds and the ice packs.

I did quite a bit of googling and it seems like co-amoxiclav goes by the brand name Augmentin in the US, and there was a lot of info online saying that it’s still ok to use if it’s even been at room temperature overnight, so I felt reassured by that. I’m pretty sure it was kept cold enough the whole time.

Re: infectiousness, it’s for an infection on an area of his skin which was fully covered by dressings and clothing, so there’s no risk to other passengers. We have been handling it extremely carefully and sanitising our hands etc. We would have reconsidered if he had something that was transmitted in the air.

It's Augmentin in the UK too.