So you’re getting ready to go on holiday? How fun! While packing shoes, clothes and personal care items are quite easy, traveling with homemade baby formula is definitely a bit trickier!
Packing the 14 different ingredients used to make the homemade baby formula can definitely pose a challenge to even the most organized parent.
What if you are flying a long distance with fresh milk for more than just a day or two? How in the world do you pull that off?
Careful planning of exactly how much formula you will use while you are out of town and the most effective method of transporting it with the least amount of hassle will save you from {gasp} having to resort to commercial formula as a stop-gap while you are away.
Resorting to commercial formula while on vacation even if organic, when your baby is accustomed to the whole, nourishing homemade formula, is sure to wreck your vacation with sleepless nights and colicky days from a very gassy and uncomfortable baby.
Don’t risk it!
And, have you heard that even organic commercial baby formulas use genetically modified ingredients? (1)
You just cannot trust anything made in a factory anymore, especially if it’s for your precious baby!
There are just way too many loopholes and games manufacturers play to get around the rules. If you need decent baby formula, you must make it yourself and this includes while you are traveling!
Resign yourself to the fact that when you travel, you must figure out a way to take these homemade baby formula ingredients with you.
Here are a few tips and ideas that may help you make the process a little less stressful:
Easy Traveling With the Homemade Formula
- Ask a friend or relative at your destination to source the ingredients you need before you arrive. This is probably the easiest way to travel by not having to take anything with you and having the ingredients ready to go upon your arrival.
- If you don’t have a friend or relative at your destination who is on board with the importance of the homemade baby formula, contact a local Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader at your destination and ask if there are any Moms in that area you could contact ahead of time who are currently using the formula who could source the ingredients for you.
- If there are no Moms at your destination who are using the homemade formula, try to at least find someone who has access to raw milk who can have some fresh raw milk ready for you when you arrive. Then, you only have to travel with the rest of the ingredients which are far less bulky.
- Consider shipping all the ingredients for the homemade formula from Radiant Life to your destination and have them waiting for you. Â Then, all you have to worry about is the raw milk.
What To Do If You Must Take ALL the Ingredients With You.
- When traveling with homemade formula, pack all the ingredients except the raw milk and the liquid whey in a small carry-on bag.  The oils do not travel well if checked at baggage claim (I know this from experience) and tend to leak all over the place no matter how securely you fasten the lids.  If questioned at security, just say they are particular foods required because of a special diet.  Pack the oils in the labeled bottles they come in and put each in a separate ziplock bag just to be safe in case they leak.  You don’t want any unmarked bottles that might be taken away by TSA.
- The remaining dry ingredients should be included in the separate, small carry-on bag as well.  Keep the ingredients in the containers they come in so that security can see what they are.  You don’t want some zealous TSA official taking away your lactose, for example, thinking it is cocaine because it is in an unlabeled ziplock bag!  I know this seems funny and perhaps far-fetched, but stranger things have happened at airport security!
- Include several glass bottles of already prepared homemade formula in ziplock bags with ice packs in the small carry-on bag. You never know when your flight will be delayed so you need to have an ample supply of formula already made in case you don’t arrive on schedule and your baby gets hungry.  You can always get a cup of hot water at an airport cafe to quickly warm up one of the glass bottles for your baby if need be.
- Freeze the amount of raw milk and liquid whey you need for the entire trip and place these containers (not glass) in the smallest cooler you can and tape it shut with packing tape.  Remove any labels that indicate the milk is raw to save yourself any questioning or hassle from TSA if traveling to a state with different laws on raw milk than your own.  TSA won’t be able to tell the milk is raw from just looking at it and will assume it is pasteurized.  Make sure you put your name and destination address on the cooler as well. Check the cooler at baggage claim. The milk will stay safely frozen for the duration of your trip and you can quickly thaw some in a sinkful of warm water when you arrive at your destination.
Don’t Forget About Water and the Blender!
One of the key ingredients in the homemade baby formula is clean, pure, filtered water.  If you can’t be sure about the water source where you are traveling, don’t forget to take some of your own with you!  Freeze it and put it in the cooler with the raw milk and liquid whey and plan to check it at baggage claim.
Be sure to double-check that your destination has measuring spoons, cups and an appropriate blending device. Â Take your own if in doubt.
Do you have tips for traveling with homemade formula? Â Please add your experiences in the comments section for other parents to read and learn from!
Never Heard of Homemade Formula Before?
Do you think making your own baby formula will be too time-consuming or costly?
The fact is that it only takes about 10 minutes to make a batch once you learn how. Budget-wise, making a top-quality, wholesome homemade formula costs about half what the organic commercial formulas cost per ounce!
I recommend sourcing your ingredients from this vetted source to ensure quality.
Happy travels!
Reference
(1) GMOs in Organic Baby Food
More Information
Feeding an Adopted Baby without Commercial Formula
Homemade Nondairy Baby Formula
Goat Milk Formula
High Levels of Arsenic in Organic Baby Formula
I know this post is a couple years old, but i need current advice for getting through security. I wont need to take milk or whey but everything else. Does anyone have recent experience flying with homemade formula? I need to take several bottles of prepared formula as well and the TSA guidlines are very vague about how much they will allow you to take through. Thanks in advance for any help!
I have flown with my homemade baby formula a few times now. Initially I froze all of my formula that I had in my carryon bag but realized that wasn’t really necessary after the first trip. I use a soft, zip bag cooler I bought from my local grocery store along with several of those hard freeze packs. Sometimes I also use frozen water bottles if I have a lot of milk. I pack this cooler in a suitcase and just check like regular and thankfully none has ever spilled. I use 32 ounce plastic containers from Container Store when flying- Nalgene brand I believe. They claim to be leak proof although I have had their smaller containers leak. I will travel with about 5 days worth of made formula and if I need more than that, I’ll make it at my destination. If I have to make formula there, I just bring additional milk in the plastic bottles straight so I can get a lot more formula from the amount of milk I have to bring. One time, in CA, I located a source to buy there. Other times, I have taken it from home.
On my last trip, I had 2 of these coolers in my suitcase and it was fine. I also took a gallon of formula with me on the plane because I wanted to use these 2 half gallon containers that I didn’t trust not to leak in the checked baggage. I just declared that I absolutely must have this formula for my baby and it was fine. I called TSA before the trip and the person I spoke with said you must declare it is necessary for your baby. I will say the TSA guidelines have relaxed a lot since I first started traveling with it. Initially, they would really only let me bring what was reasonable to reach my destination. Now the message playing at the airport states the liquid rule doesn’t apply to baby formula. Then I had a second small carry on cooler that I kept my baby bottles in since they didn’t fit in my small cooler with my gallon of formula.
To make my formula last longer, I never add my whey until I am about to start using that batch. So, I make several batches of formula, usually about 3 days worth, leaving out the whey, then I add the whey just before I start using that batch. I find it keeps better this way.
Instead of heating before serving, I take my bottle out an hour or 2 ahead of time so it can come to room temperature. I’ve never had any ruin.
And if for some reason, it wasn’t feasible to bring all of the ingredients with you to make formula, half raw milk and half water is worlds better than conventional formula. I believe this is fine short term. Raw milk has been used for thousands of years without the extra things.
I meant to say “checked bag” in the second line of my prior comment and not “carryon”.
Thanks for posting! We use it also, since I can’t bf due to a medical condition. We also get donated milk & go half & half with raw milk formula.
Hey Sarah, will the airport really let you check something that’s taped shut? (the cooler with milk in it) We are flying to CO in a few weeks and I’m not sure what I will do without my raw milk for my 16mo. If I can freeze it and take it, that would be great!
@Megan Thanks for that. I really appreciate it. That’s amazing that you initiated breastfeeding w/o drugs. Every single case I’ve heard of in the past involved using drugs to stimulate lactation and it messed up the woman’s hormones. Not a good trade-off to me. I’m glad you persisted and that it worked for you! My manner of writing is very direct and to the point which can come off as a bit “in your face” to some people. But, my intentions are always good. Best to you and your lucky children who have a very dedicated woman as a Mother! 🙂
I apologize. FTR, I don’t think that I have ever personally felt as though your post were holier than thou, I truly appreciate all the info you provide for free. I suppose I was trying to play devils advocate and failed miserably.
I was a bit offended at the fact that you would think that I would suggest drugs to induce lactation because I do anything and everything to avoid them (and in hindsight being offended makes no sense b/c you don’t know me and could not possibly have read my mind:). The last four months have been stressful. I was labeled the extreme weirdo mom who was “out there” when my son was in the hospital. I was the floor freak who wouldn’t order her kids food off the menu and gave him FLCO and liver pate when he would eat it. I questioned every drug that went in him relentlessly. They wanted to give him acid reflux meds b/c it was protocol and looked at me like I had 3 heads when I said no. They couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t want him to have anti-depressant after surgery to help him sleep when massage and healing touch worked every time. I lie at every appointment about giving him abx weekly b/c I just can’t argue with them anymore. I have to defend my stance against vaccination to everyone.
And, FTR, I don’t ever think its appropriate to send someone a nasty email simply b/c of a disagreement in the thought process. Sandra, from Nourishing Our Children had a great post on the issue of not always agreeing after last weeks shake-up about feeding babies.
Again, I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas! I am off to prep a Christmas goose, make Sunshine bread, and a Gingerbread Raw Cream Cheese cake for tomorrow.
@Megan I get quite a bit of nasty emails from folks about what I write. When someone says that some of your posts are holier than thou, it seems to send a rather strong dislike message. At least to me. Life is grey, not black and white and folks that insist on the perfect, ideal, Garden of Eden type of approach to breastfeeding when it just ain’t so in the real world irks me.
Oh Lordy…I can’t possible dislike you b/c I don’t know you. Can I not disagree?
I have four kids, one recovering from cancer, I homeschool, make everything from scratch, have a farm, milk cows and raise chickens, we have over 1.5 acres of garden at the moment and sell everything at cost so that everyone who wants it can have access to good food. I don’t have time to read you blog from post #1 – post#…I barely get to brush my teeth some days.
I truly hope you do have a Merry Christmas. I have learn a lot from your blog and feed my family better because of it. Thank you!
@Megan Nice! Thanks for that lovely and obviously well thought out insult! Sometimes I wonder why people who obviously dislike me bother to read my blog? Happy holidays to you too! Oh and by the way, my stance on food is far from black and white. I advocate SPAM for folks who can’t afford grassfed meats, but I guess you didn’t read that post.
WOW! And no, not with drugs. With months of planning and daily use of a breastpump well before baby comes home and SNS nursing system once baby is home.
No one can make anyone else feel guilty. Guilt comes from within.
When my son was life flighted to a Children’s hospital b/c the tumor he had ruptured and he was bleeding out, you can bet I wasn’t standing there asking what kind of diet the person who donated blood had before it went into my son, I was only concerned about him making it through the night. I drink a small cup of coffee daily and breastfeed, guess I am just a terrible person *eyeroll* must be nice to live in such a perfect world!
You have a black or white stance on food. How many times do you think moms feel bad after reading a holier than thou post about how if you feed your kid ‘xyz’ that they are going to be severly malnouished and not have proper brain growth…when all they have to eat is ‘xyz’
OK Back on the topic…I make your homemade formula and I traveled to Bora Bora with 20 bags and I got through all security checks with no problem…just for the record…I did bf but I have twins and did not produce enough milk for the both of them. It was their choice to stop they would just scream and arch thier back, I would then pump to realize there was nothing to give. I have had a breast reduction and implants when I was 20 years old, many years before bf was even though about. I am greatful for your blog because it has feed my twins now for 8 months and they are thriving. I still do pump but only get about 8oz per day. I used donor milk and went as far as trying to buy a goat because we can not get raw milk here in hawaii. I now must use powdered goat milk but I do add enzymes to bring it back to life…thanks again …p.s we also use the pepermit cod liver oil and babies smell like candy canes!!
Hi! How long can this formula be frozen for? Can I make a few days worth and freeze? Our raw milk starts to smell weird after just a few days and I can only go get out raw milk once a week. Is there an ingredient that can’t be frozen? I’d think it would stay fresher because it’s frozen? Please help Thanks!
I would suggest only freezing for a week or two given that freezing is not ideal approach to begin with. Using frozen homemade formula is only supposed to be for emergencies, not regular approach to making it.