Breast Milk, Formula, and Airport Security

As a first time mom, the idea of traveling caused waves of anxiety I didn’t know I could feel. My mind racing with to-do lists and the what ifs for flying with an infant…especially as an exclusive pumper.

Thankfully the Internet is available with all the answers (mostly). I checked the TSA website before our first trip with a 4 month old to gain knowledge of transporting breast milk in a small cooler with an ice pack. I packed about 8 ounces of fresh breast milk and packed a container of powdered formula to carry on. Flying in the U.S. there is no set amount of breast milk you are limited to travel with. I had placed the cooler and the formula into their own individual bin to go through the x-ray machine.

TSA at Denver International Airport quickly opened the breast milk to check it using a strip, and the formula container was wiped on the outside. No issues! Going through JFK (New York) was easy too although the TSA agent took a much slower thorough approach to screening the milk.

If you’ve ever flown internationally, you know that there is usually more than one airport involved in the traveling process. On our way out to Heathrow Airport (London) traveling with breast milk and formula was a breeze, but on the way back it got stressful.

We ran out of powdered formula (Enfamil) during our trip so we had bought pre-mixed liquid formula for our travels back to the States. I had 4 individual unopened pre-mixed formula containers that we were able to get through security at Heathrow easily. They took the containers out of the Ziplock bag I had them in, ran them through the x-ray, then continued to check the breast milk.

Due to the high volume of travelers and low staff, our flight was delayed 2 hours (waiting on baggage) therefore our short layover at JFK became even shorter. We had to go through TSA at JFK to reach our connecting flight to DIA, unfortunately TSA Pre-Check was closed and the lines were very long.

As we stood in this long line, a staff member who was managing the crowd in the lines tried to convince me that I couldn’t bring my baby’s formula through security because it was a liquid and told me I should dump it out. I countered back and told him I will absolutely do no such thing because I know for a fact that my child’s food is allowed to get on the flight.

It is important to know your TSA rights!

Panic set in as our flight was boarding while we were still waiting at security. I asked a TSA agent to expedite checking our bin full of liquid so we could make our flight. Thankfully he agreed, maybe he was a new hire, but he opened all of the formula to check it as if it was breast milk!

Once you open pre-mixed formula it is good for an hour if not refrigerated. I couldn’t believe it! I was speechless when he had me open every container for him to check using a strip. I didn’t argue it (I should have) because I was flustered about possibly missing our connecting flight. Strapped to my chest I had a baby that could wake up any minute , I wanted to get moving to the gate ASAP.

The cherry on top, he lectured us that the icepack was melted. I didn’t even think to check the icepack after traveling for 9 hours in the middle of summer with record breaking temperatures if it was still frozen before going through security. He allowed me to keep the icepack, but I was still fuming over the formula as we were running through the airport.

To keep the opened containers of formula chilled, we had asked the flight attendant for ice to fill the Ziplock bag I had holding the containers. Graciously, our baby slept the entire flight home and didn’t need to drink the formula (that flight also got delayed for 2 hours).

Going through security in any airport tends to be laced with slight anxiety, but our advice is to always do research beforehand if you are unsure about the procedures. You can Facebook message TSA and talk to a real person with questions you may have at https://www.facebook.com/AskTSA/.

What we’ve learned for future experiences: it’s a good idea to print out the TSA guidelines and bring it with in case the TSA agent is unfamiliar with how breast milk or formula is screened.