The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) Holiday Checklist

If you are traveling during this holiday season, take a look at the TSA's travel tips/checklist. It gives a good rundown on what's allowed, what's expected, and where to get good information. It's especially helpful if you're not a frequent traveler or if you're coming to the United States from another country; we do have some differences in our security procedures such as needing to take off shoes when going through the TSA checkpoint. You can also check the TSA's website here if you need more details.

Can you take milk on an airplane?

A common concern that comes up a lot from parents traveling on airplanes with small children is how TSA deals with milk -- either cow milk, formula or breast milk. The short answer is YES, you can take milk in reasonable quantities through security (note: "reasonable" is obviously a judgement call, but be prepared to explain why you have the amount of food on you that you did; we had 12 food pouches on us when we flew to Singapore and were questioned on the quantity. Once we explained where we were going and that we expected our 11 month old to need one packet every 3 hours, TSA told us we were fine) . However, some things to make taking milk through security easier:

1. Carry your baby's food in a separate carry-on and declare ahead of time -- BEFORE you start putting your things in the x-ray machine -- to the TSA that you are carrying baby food. Carrying it in a separate bag will make it easier for you to take it out when TSA asks.
   
2.  If your child is old enough, you could consider using milk boxes, like the Horizon Organic ones. Unfortunately, they do not have whole milk options, but for a short trip, it might be a good and convenient option (and less messy too!).
   
3. If you are taking formula, I recommend taking powdered, not ready-to-feed formulations; I did hear one horror story from a mom who had to cancel her trip after TSA made her open every single one of her ready-to-feed formula bottles and as a result, she had to throw them out as she didn't have enough for the trip. When we traveled with formula, we always took the individual Enfamil formula packets as well the tub as a back-up. We never had a problem.
   
4. You can also ask the flight attendants for milk. We have started to take this approach because it's the easiest option.
   
5. Buy milk/water once you have passed through security. Items purchased after you go through security are perfectly acceptable to bring on the airplane.

Expect to go through additional security screening because you are bringing milk on-board an aircraft. Most of the time, this check consists of a visual screening and also scanning through a special machine that does not involve opening the package. Always be prepared, however, to actually open the food/beverage you're bringing through and plan accordingly. Once I got a full body pat-down as well.

You'll also find that strictness varies airport by airport and also day by day. When we flew to India, TSA in Newark scanned every single one of our formula packets (and we had 16!) and I noticed they were scanning another woman's baby bottles -- she had 5-6 of them. Our home airport, however, just ran 2-3 of our formula packets through their scanner, visually checked our food pouches, and called it a day. Expect the type of screening we encountered in Newark to be the norm though and plan accordingly.

As always, I recommend carrying copies of TSA guidelines on you just in case you run into someone who says you cannot bring milk for your baby through security.

Travel is like a box of chocolates

I think one of the reasons why travel with children can be stressful is you never, ever know what version of your child is going to show up. When we embarked on our first international trip, the husband and I were a bit nervous because it was, after all, a 30-hour trip from start to finish (one way!), but we felt comfortable that we had the domestic leg of the trip down. After all, before making this trip, we'd already made multiple trips across the country with baby and they had all gone swimmingly. So as we arrived at the airport on the morning of our big adventure, we told ourselves the trouble would start over the Pacific; the three and a half hour leg to California would be cake.

I still remember how frazzled we were the morning of our departure. Our flight left fairly early, before 8 am, and we were all cranky from not getting enough sleep and baby didn't like having been woken up well before her usual 7:30 am wake-up. On top of that, we had a lot of stuff. A LOT OF STUFF. After all, we were heading halfway around the world to Singapore and then after that to Japan and we would be gone for nearly two months. I thought we had packed relatively light, but I quickly reconsidered that as I watched the husband load suitcase after suitcase into the taxi cab. Five suitcases, one diaper bag, one backpack, a carseat, a stroller, a purse, camera bag and Go-Go Babyz Kidz Travelmate later, we looked at each other, kind of in shock: How the heck were we going to maneuver all this stuff AND a baby? We were both super relieved we had decided to call our trusty cab driver Louis to take us to the airport because there was no way we would have been able to fit everything into the long-term parking shuttle bus.

We made it to the terminal and lucky us, found a cart that someone had neglected to return to the rental station. We took this as a good sign and loaded all of our stuff onto the cart and headed over to the United counter to check-in. Since we have elite status on United, our bags didn't cost us anything extra, thank goodness. At that point, I was well ready to leave something (all of it?) behind. We made it through security fairly easily though TSA did give us some issues with the amount of baby food and formula we were carrying onboard the flight. We pointed out we were traveling 30 hours from here to Singapore and after some additional security procedures, we were allowed to pass.

We breathed a sigh of relief once we got on the plane and made ourselves as comfortable as possible. This was, after all, going to be the easiest part of the trip, right? RIGHT? Wrong. Things started going south almost immediately. The plane's departure was delayed and we had timed our fussy baby's bottle wrong. In our previous trial runs domestically (the most recent being just 3 weeks before to Myrtle Beach), we had done beautifully timing the bottle to coincide with the roar of the jet engines and the combination always made baby fall asleep. Not this time. Baby drank all of her formula and then refused -- REFUSED! -- to sleep. None of this would have been an issue if our sweet wonderful baby hadn't suddenly evolved into a banshee. Yes, we were THOSE people on the airplane, the ones every other passenger alternately feels furious at and then sorry for.

We figured baby was hungry so we gave her a food pouch which she promptly squirted all over herself and then over the seat and a bit on us, her completely perplexed parents. We changed her clothes and I was mentally congratulating myself for packing two outfits in her diaper bag so we had this. A few minutes later, we smelled the tell-tale stink of a poopy diaper. More screaming. I couldn't get down the aisle because the beverage service was in progress and so I started setting up on the floor of the airplane only to be reprimanded by the flight attendant (more on changing diapers on a plane here and here). So we sat there with our miserable stinky baby (but hey, at least her clothes were clean!) until I could make my way down to the bathroom to change the diaper.

By the time we made it to San Francisco, we'd been asked by half a dozen people what our final destination was and we could see palpable relief when they realized they wouldn't be traveling any further with us. A couple of people sympathized with us but yeah, it was mostly relief. We were among the last to drag our miserable selves off the plane and in our frazzled tired state, we didn't realize we had left part of our carseat on the plane. That led to whole 'nother "adventure" that involved running through multiple terminals and trying to get back onto our original aircraft, only to be told too bad, so sad; the plane had already been cleaned and our carseat attachment was on the other side of security.  We looked at each other, hot and sweaty, still weighed down by all our stuff, and tried not to dwell too much on the fact that we still had two planes and 27 hours more to go.

Mom humiliated on American Airlines flight

American Airlines apparently stopped a woman from using her Medela pump during a flight. I'm posting this story here in the interest of sharing, but keep in mind that some of these experiences reported in the media are not typical. Complete story: Breast pumping mom humiliated on flight.

Car Seats

Car seats are obviously required for car travel but can also used in airplanes if purchasing a seat for an infant (child under age 2; after age 2, child must travel in their own seat). I recommend the following when researching a car seat purchase. Check out Car-Safety.org and also The Car Seat Lady and also NHTSA for tips and recommendations on what seat to buy. The Car Seat Lady has a huge section on using carseats on airplanes here and it's well worth checking out.

Link of the Day

Today's link of the day: Airlines launch child-free zones

Link of the Day

Apologies for the hiatus; I was actually traveling overseas for the last 3 weeks with the little one and of course I have gathered up plenty of information to share here. Still, as we're recovering from severe jet-lag, here's a story on absurd airline fees.

Traveling tips for an easier flight

This article offers 35 tips for travelers to make taking to the friendly skies a bit more friendly and easy. Only the first few tips apply to traveling with children, but there are some super good and creative ideas, submitted by 'real' travelers. I especially like the 'airline tent' idea. I'm going to have to try that one out next time we fly!

Read  35 Tips for a Successful Flight.

Airline Luggage Policy for Children

Every airline has a different policy for luggage for both adults and children. It's worth checking ahead of time to make sure you don't get stuck with any unintended baggage fees. Most airlines will, however, check at least one infant item -- a stroller or carseat -- for no fees, and some may even check both for no fees. You might also want to check if what the airlines' policy for gatecheck is; if you do plan to gatecheck, you might want to get to the gate counter a few minutes prior to boarding to get the special tags for your items. It will save you and everyone else time for boarding.

In addition, if you have frequent flyer benefits with an airline, you might find that you get more than your regular baggage allowance and you can check additional items like carseats and strollers for no additional fee.

Note that baggage allowances vary by international and domestic flights and that if you are flying internationally and are planning to take a regional flight in-country, you might find the regional airline will have a different fee structure, especially if it's a discount airline like Spirit Air.