Making Up Formula on Plane

[Dink]

Hello - anyone travelled with a baby recently can tell me about taking water onto plane for making up baby's bottles? How do you do it? Do I put the water in the bottles at home and take like that (but what do I carry them in, my thermos bag is not big enough for all the bottles)? Doesn't the water spill everywhere if you do this? Can I use mineral water that I buy after security? Will the airline staff just make them up using their boiled water?

Sorry if this is an idiotic question!

 

[louisouis]

Hi Dink,

You can ask the the stewardess for boiled water, you can request for cooled water, warm or hot water, they will understand and mix it or you can ask for hot and cold water and mix it to get your desired temperature. The airplane staff are usually very accomodating. Just bring enough sterilised bottles with you. Good Luck!

 

[Shenzhennifer]

They have loads of bottled water on the plane. I know they also have outlets on the planes in various locations. Maybe you can bring a bottle warmer. One more thing to bring!

 

[carang]

you cannot fill the bottles before you go through the inspection.

 

[slamdunk]

just flew long haul with a couple of feeds and stewards are very accommodating as louisouis. i used the bottled water they gave out (don't usually used mineral water of course but for 2 feeds as a one off for convenience, I think is fine) and asked them to top up with boiled water. the bottled water was chilled so i had to adjust my cold to hot ratio a bit! i also saw another bottle being warmed by staff in a teapot in the kitchen galley.

 

[carang]

it also depends on the age of your child...my 2 year old is VERY fond of her milk. most of the airports we've been through have been ok. but one airport (calgary) wouldn't even let us through with their disney-themed juice bottles (eventhough my kids were avidly drinking from them). i was told it was because they were older than 2 years.

no problems though in:
hong kong, shanghai, vancouver, regina...

 

[Matty]

As long as you are travelling with a baby, baby food and liquids are exempt from the security restrictions, so you can fill your bottles with water and take them on board.
I've never bothered to warm them, my 2 were always happy with room temp.

What kind of bottles do you use? I've always used Avent, and they don't leak.

 

[lylee]

just flew with my baby last week. i brought along the baby wildalp water to mix the formula & then asked the cabin attendants for hot water to warm up the milk in a flask. no problems with security at the hong kong airport. remember to bring more than enough sterilized bottles & milk powder just in case.

 

[kmalia]

I have never had any problem traveling with filled baby bottles. I just came back from a trip where I went HKG - Narita - Honolulu - San Francisco - Las Vegas - HKG and carried sterilized water in baby bottles (in plastic ziplock bags) the entire time, I had six on the last leg (SFO to HKG).

I asked for hot water in a venti starbucks cup (which I brought with me) to warm the bottle. Make sure you bring your own cup to put the hot water into as the first time I traveled they tried to put hot water in an air-sickness bag and it leaked all over - apparently they don't have containers on the plane that are large enough for the bottles to fit in.

good luck and safe travels!

 

[tstmum]

A tip I was given was to get baby used to drinking formula or milk at room temperature. It makes it SO much easier when you're out and about or travelling.

I've not had problems getting sterilized water in baby bottles through security before, but that's just been HK and Australia. Have heard other places are a nightmare, though.