Airport security discarded ALL my frozen expressed milk before our flight

[Nadsthakur]

During security screening, approximately 25 ounces of my frozen expressed breast milk was confiscated and discarded. I was told that because it was frozen, it could not be tested and therefore could not be taken through security.

I explained several times that this milk was for my 8-month-old daughter, who is unable to latch and is exclusively fed expressed breast milk. This was not simply a drink or an inconvenience, it was my daughter's only prepared source of nutrition for our journey. Despite explaining this, I was told there was nothing that could be done, and I had to stand there and watch as the milk was thrown away.

I cannot put into words how upsetting this was. Expressing 25 ounces of breast milk takes an enormous amount of time, dedication and physical effort. It means pumping throughout the day and night, carefully storing every bottle and planning ahead. Every ounce represents hours of work. To have it thrown away in front of me, after explaining exactly how important it was, was absolutely heartbreaking.

What made the situation even worse was the attitude of the officers involved. Throughout the interaction, I felt they showed very little empathy or understanding of how serious this was. I was clearly distressed and repeatedly explained that they were taking away my baby's only food for our journey. Rather than trying to help, showing compassion or explaining whether there were any alternative screening options, my concerns were simply dismissed.

After my daughter's food had been thrown away, I was handed a customer feedback card and sent on my way. It genuinely felt as though nobody cared that an 8-month-old baby had just lost the only food I had prepared for her. The complete lack of compassion shown towards me as a mother was deeply upsetting and made an already distressing situation even worse.

Instead of looking forward to our holiday, I boarded an international flight feeling anxious and devastated, worrying about how I was going to feed my daughter while we were away. No parent should ever be put in that position.

Before travelling, I checked the guidance available to passengers. Ryanair's website clearly states that parents travelling with an infant can bring as much baby milk as needed for the flight, provided it is presented for inspection. I relied on this information when preparing for our journey. At no point was I made aware that frozen expressed breast milk could be refused because it could not be tested, and I was given no alternative option when I reached security.

I do not know the names of the officers involved, but im sure they can be identified through CCTV footage and staff rosters for the security checkpoint.
I want Manchester Airport to provide a full explanation of why my daughter's expressed breast milk was confiscated.
The specific policy or security procedure that required it to be discarded.
An explanation of why no alternative screening method. The time and physical effort it took to express and store it, and the significant distress, anxiety and disruption this caused to both me and my family.im supposed to enjoy my holiday and now im stressed in morroco about how I will feed her. She doesnt latch and only has expressed milk. Besides complaining to the Airport what else can I do so no other family goes through this.

Yeah because that's clearly the main point 🙄

I’m afraid the rules are clearly stated. The responsibilty rests on you.

I do empathise with your situation, but you are simply wasting your time complaining. They will need to enforce the rules against people who plead a special case all day long - they would have almost certainly be trained to not engage beyond stating the rules and moving you on. Your choice was to accept them throwing the milk away and board the flight or not board and get a later flight. Them allowing you on with frozen milk was never going to happen.

You were at fault and you need to make peace with that. There is no point beating yourself up or trying to blame people who were simply doing their job. Put it behind you now and enjoy your trip 💐. I hope the flight turned out ok and you were able were able to express enough milk for her onboard.

Op missed that that it says liquid not frozen.

I am assuming by you stressing the 25 years and the exclamation marks that you're being sarcastic. But maybe you are hoping for plausible deniability when someone points out just how jaw droppingly stupid that would be.

But it won’t have been Ryanair. It’s airport security, not Ryanair.

OP I'm so sorry. This is not right. I'm completely with you. This is about making sure your daughter has food. The irony in a country where mums are pressured through the roof to exclusively give breast milk. How are you supposed to win. I'm so impressed with your dedication to pumping etc you must be exhausted. Really hope you are getting some rest and have some opportunity to de-stress while you are away. Really sorry you've had to go through this. X

This sounds horrible for you and obviously very hard for your baby! I think if you are planning to travel etc it’s important to have other alternatives food wise because things don’t always go to plan.
on a side note I think it’s mad that your baby is still only on milk at 8mo. My son was eating three meals a day by then! In these situations it’s ok to give other milk if it means they aren’t starving hungry. It’s a bit daft to cling to this one precarious option when there are other options at that age.

Exactly. And these stories can lead to change where possible.

Of course it’s right! It’s security rules. They don’t get changed ever.

I’m sorry but it does all feel overly dramatic. The OP had two bottles of refrigerated milk with her for a 4 hour flight. And the baby takes some solids. Losing the frozen expressed milk was annoying but not the end of the world.

Haranguing the security staff however who were only doing their job and causing a hysterical scene is not great. I wouldn’t want people treating me in that way at work!

if OP genuinely felt she did not have enough food for the baby on the flight and it would come to harm she would either have bought some formula or not got on the flight. She didn’t do either and it sounds like other than the fact she didn’t get her own way, no harm was done to anyone other than the security team here

I understand your feelings, I pumped too and remember almost killing my MIL who unknowingly tipped a whole bottle down the sink. But I would say it's quite common knowledge that a frozen liquid wouldn't be allowed in hand luggage. You just need to chalk this down to experience. Formula is perfectly fine in this situation. Once a child starts weaning, their "virgin gut" has gone and so the reason many people avoid formula essentially disappears. A few formula feeds would have been fine. How did you manage it in the end?

Why would you want to go to Morroco with 4 kids!

What was the workaround for OP here?

That is soul destroying OP and I can completely understand how you read the Ryan Air guidelines as you did but you can probably see the error and understand it now. I do think they should have reminded you that you could check it in.

I'm glad you had enough for the journey and I hope you're all doing OK now. I can imagine the stress doesn't help with your expressing on the other side so take a massive deep breath and try to move on from it now. Hopefully at 8m baby is eating some decent solids.

Those saying give formula are a bit annoying and it isn't the point. Everyone is allowed to choose how to feed their baby and rightly so, OP has decided to bf hers. Formula is not her solution here.

Most acids.

As annoying and upsetting as it was, security were only upholding the rules.
If they made an exception for you, they are then setting a precedent to allow other banned items through.

Chalk it up to experience and hopefully you'll be better prepared next time.

Poor planning on your part. UK holiday or ferry holiday if it was so important to you. Presumably you were expressing there too so it's only a couple of feeds.

to use the two bottles of refrigerated milk first, buy some sterile bottles or sterilised airside and express on the flight in case she ran out of refrigerated milk before she landed would have been my workaround in these circumstances

One of whom is only 8 months old and you won't give formula to 🥴

She'd just be making a fool of herself.

3/4 bottles is probably much more than is required for a short Ryanair flight.

Frozen milk isn't allowed.

I appreciate the effort trying to express that amount of milk. But that's the rules.

I'm sorry this happened! The person you checked with is entirely to blame! I went away without my baby and expressed a bit before on the way there to the airport and then had my milk from a 2 day trip. Frozen milk has to be in checked in suitcase and fresh with you in hand luggage was what I was told. Non of my milk was even tested they just asked what it was

So you say you also had refrigerated milk. So could you not use that for the flight and then express once you arrived to replace the lost milk?

I am sorry you were so upset but if the rules allowed for frozen milk which is not testable to be permitted, what do you think the terrorists would do?

I hope you are able to put this behind you and still enjoy your holiday. Absolutely zero point in complaining about someone doing their job correctly.

I can only imagine that is devastating. But a very quick Google shows that you cannot take frozen breast milk in hand luggage. I know that must be hard, but they actually did correctly follow the rules, even if they could have been nicer about it.

It was your choice to get on that flight @Nadsthakur, this is totally on you for not researching this before even booking a holiday . I am sorry this happened and it's upset you but take this as a lesson learned.

For very good reason airport security staff have zero discretion... if something is not compliant with published rules it will not pass.

Certainly ex-UK that applies to everyone - the general public, airside workers and even crew, despite the those last two groups being airside pass holders.....

There's zero point in complaining about what was done, I'm not sure there's any point in even contemplating complaining about how it was done.