As a follow up to my post on whether milk is allowed through security, I wanted to address another problem we encountered when we were getting ready to fly to Singapore. At the time of our flight, Baby was 11 months old and still mainly getting nutrition from formula and she was on a three hour schedule with some solids sprinkled in here and there. As I was planning our trip, I realized it would be 30 hours from the time we left our house until we arrived at our hotel at the Singapore Airport (it would be another 12 to 15 hours after arrival in Singapore before we moved to our apartment). Once I realized it would be 30 hours door to door, I did what any good mother would do: I panicked.
After panic set in, I set about thinking through the issue. I need to pack enough food for my 11-month old to be able to eat. I calculated that at most I would need 10 bottles and an equal number of food pouches (we assumed she would eat little to nothing of the kid's meal we had ordered for her on the flight; we were able to order a kid's meal, by the way, because we bought Baby her own seat). Food pouches are easy (you can occasionally score them for 10 for $10 at Babies R Us) but what to do about the formula? As I said in the milk post from earlier, we knew we didn't want to use the ready-made formula even though that would be easier to deal with on the plane, so instead we went with the individual powder packets. So there you have it -- we were good with formula (we bought water inside the terminal) and we were good with food pouches. Here was the problem: how does one carry enough bottles and nipples for a 30 hour journey?
We didn't think we would have enough time during our layovers in San Francisco and Tokyo to wash bottles; we were right about the first (long story that I will blog about one day) and our experience in Tokyo was surprisingly smooth and laid-back. We also knew washing bottles in an airplane bathroom would be ridiculously crazy (not to mention, ugh). I had some Playtex bottles but the drop-ins didn't really solve my problem because I would still have to carry at least 10 nipples since I wouldn't be able to wash them properly. And really, if you've ever smelled formula, you do want to wash the bottles properly because otherwise, the stench is foul and it's like chipping away at chalk to get the stuff off the bottles. The idea of lugging around unwashed formula bottles for 30 hours sounded just nasty and I wanted no part of that.
A friend had seen an advertisement for Steribottle -- a product out of the UK -- that is basically a ready to use disposable bottle that came with a nipple. No sterilization required. You use it once and then you toss it. It sounded great to us, except it was only available via mail order and it was (you guessed it) back-ordered. Luckily, the husband was in the UK at the time and I found out it was carried in a store called Boots -- the US equivalent of Walgreens and CVS (and as ubiquitous as those stores are here!) -- and he went from store to store until he found the bottles. I asked him to buy two packages of 10 bottles each, assuming we would need 10 on the way over and 10 on the way back.
Now, the bottles themselves are a tadbit bulky and are not as elegant as your regular bottles. The lid snaps on tightly and while they say it can't be removed for reuse, my husband managed to get the lid off a bottle to add water to leftover formula (i.e. Baby had finished the bottle and wanted a bit more, so we would add more water to what was left in the bottle). The nipples are also fast and a bit wide at the base, so I think it would be difficult for a very small baby to use. The bottles are disposable but are also recyclable, though recycling isn't always an option on an airplane.
We have gone through about 30 of these bottles (still have about 5-8 of them in my pantry) on our international trips. They are pricey -- $1 a bottle (more when my husband actually purchased them in the UK) -- but they solved a key problem for us: how to safely dispense formula to our baby while traveling. If you are thinking about trying this product, I would recommend giving buying one box and training your baby to drink out of that bottle before you get on the plane. Our Baby is pretty adept at bottles and non-fussy; she doesn't care what temperature the milk is, what the shape of the nipple is, etc. But not all babies are that easy going so it's best to try it ahead of time to see if it will actually work for you. All in all, I recommend these for long journeys. Truth be told, they are a bit too expensive to carry for any other reason.
After panic set in, I set about thinking through the issue. I need to pack enough food for my 11-month old to be able to eat. I calculated that at most I would need 10 bottles and an equal number of food pouches (we assumed she would eat little to nothing of the kid's meal we had ordered for her on the flight; we were able to order a kid's meal, by the way, because we bought Baby her own seat). Food pouches are easy (you can occasionally score them for 10 for $10 at Babies R Us) but what to do about the formula? As I said in the milk post from earlier, we knew we didn't want to use the ready-made formula even though that would be easier to deal with on the plane, so instead we went with the individual powder packets. So there you have it -- we were good with formula (we bought water inside the terminal) and we were good with food pouches. Here was the problem: how does one carry enough bottles and nipples for a 30 hour journey?
We didn't think we would have enough time during our layovers in San Francisco and Tokyo to wash bottles; we were right about the first (long story that I will blog about one day) and our experience in Tokyo was surprisingly smooth and laid-back. We also knew washing bottles in an airplane bathroom would be ridiculously crazy (not to mention, ugh). I had some Playtex bottles but the drop-ins didn't really solve my problem because I would still have to carry at least 10 nipples since I wouldn't be able to wash them properly. And really, if you've ever smelled formula, you do want to wash the bottles properly because otherwise, the stench is foul and it's like chipping away at chalk to get the stuff off the bottles. The idea of lugging around unwashed formula bottles for 30 hours sounded just nasty and I wanted no part of that.
A friend had seen an advertisement for Steribottle -- a product out of the UK -- that is basically a ready to use disposable bottle that came with a nipple. No sterilization required. You use it once and then you toss it. It sounded great to us, except it was only available via mail order and it was (you guessed it) back-ordered. Luckily, the husband was in the UK at the time and I found out it was carried in a store called Boots -- the US equivalent of Walgreens and CVS (and as ubiquitous as those stores are here!) -- and he went from store to store until he found the bottles. I asked him to buy two packages of 10 bottles each, assuming we would need 10 on the way over and 10 on the way back.
Now, the bottles themselves are a tadbit bulky and are not as elegant as your regular bottles. The lid snaps on tightly and while they say it can't be removed for reuse, my husband managed to get the lid off a bottle to add water to leftover formula (i.e. Baby had finished the bottle and wanted a bit more, so we would add more water to what was left in the bottle). The nipples are also fast and a bit wide at the base, so I think it would be difficult for a very small baby to use. The bottles are disposable but are also recyclable, though recycling isn't always an option on an airplane.
We have gone through about 30 of these bottles (still have about 5-8 of them in my pantry) on our international trips. They are pricey -- $1 a bottle (more when my husband actually purchased them in the UK) -- but they solved a key problem for us: how to safely dispense formula to our baby while traveling. If you are thinking about trying this product, I would recommend giving buying one box and training your baby to drink out of that bottle before you get on the plane. Our Baby is pretty adept at bottles and non-fussy; she doesn't care what temperature the milk is, what the shape of the nipple is, etc. But not all babies are that easy going so it's best to try it ahead of time to see if it will actually work for you. All in all, I recommend these for long journeys. Truth be told, they are a bit too expensive to carry for any other reason.
