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We are traveling out of town for a couple of days. I have been making my own baby food and would like to continue feeding her this food on our trip. The food is frozen at this point. Any suggestions on how to travel with the food?
From our home to airport to our destination will be aboue 3 1/2 hours so the food won't be out of freezer too long.
Has anyone done this successfully? Any tips?
Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who replied. I was successful in bringing my frozen baby food with my on our trip - enough for the 3 days we were gone too!
I used a small insulated soft cooler bag with 2 small plastic ice packs to keep the food frozen. I did call the airline to make sure this would be ok. FYI - no dry ice on airplane - can be considered weapon I guess. I did have to notify the TSA that I had the food and ice packs and they had to inspect it but it wasn't a big deal.
Anyways, we were away from freezer for about 3 1/2 hours and none of the food even started to defrost. All was still nice a frozen when we arrived at our destination. I did have a little trouble at one airport. Security lady tried to tell me I couldn't take the ice packs. I did bring gerber organic food just to feed in the airport since I didn't have any way to prepare the frozed food there.
Some of the local grocery stores sell dry ice. It will keep the food frozen while traveling, and it comes sealed so you don't have to worry about handling it. I've seen it at larger Vons stores, and some Ralphs.
I just did this last week from CA to NJ, so we had multiple meals to get through while on route.
I'm not sure how old your baby is or what s/he has been eating to this point, but I took along a small, soft sided cooler with a frozen enfamil gel pack for the plane, and I didn't have any problems at the airport. I packed it with hardboiled egg (yolk only for my 10 month old, but the white was a nice snack for me and my husband), a single serving of apricot-applesauce, organic string cheese, some sliced up mango, and a ziploc of pealed and dices grapes. My son ate it all!
I also packed some of the Earth's Best pastina (little pasta) and asked for a half cup of hot water from the beverage cart on the plane. I just added the pastina to the hot water, let it sit for a few minutes, and added some string cheese to it.
I also suggest bringing extra spoons if your baby likes to play with them while feeding like mine does. Once they drop on the airplane floor, you probably don't want to put it back in his/her mouth! Good luck and have a nice trip!
Hi Y.,
If you keep the food tightly packed together with a standard ice pack there's really no need to worry about spoilage if it will be back in the freezer or a refridgerator w/in 6 - 8 hours. Most bacteria actually take quite a long time under optimal conditions to grow.
As an example, in the laboratory, it routinely takes 8 or more hours in a nutrient-rich broth with good aeration at 37 deg C to get E. coli to reach its rapid growth phase. At 0 - 20 deg C, it could take days for bacterial to grow enough to become a problem. Just as a point of interest, we're now learning that many types of bacteria don't start producing toxins until they reach a critical mass. They actually communicate with each other chemically. Many microbiologists are working on ways to disrupt that communication as an alternative to antibiotics, which could be vitally important someday in treating strains that are resistant to multiple antibiotics.
The bigger problem might be, as some have suggested, airport security. You might want to call the airline and ask them how they handle carry on baby food. I'm sure they deal with it regularly.
I suggest freezing the food with ice packs in your CHECKED luggage. For carry-on, I have had everything from no problem, to actually having to throw away my ice packs and dumping liquid baby formula. While there are security guidelines it seems that much is up to the specific security detail at each individual airport and that there is a lot of opinion involved (as opposed to hard rules). I'd bring just enough for the flight for carry-on. Be prepared for anything!! Have fun!
great job, just bring an ice chest even 4 hours isn't a big deal if you don't have an ice chest since it's already frozen
Honestly, as healthy as home made baby food is at home, it becomes dangerous when you travel. The risk of it growing bacteria outways the benefits. Take packaged food along and always throw away any uneaten portions. A few days on "store bought" food will not make a difference in your childs health.
Not sure if you are putting baby food in the check baggage or in a carry-on. But if you want to carry-on you may want to give the TSA (transportation security admin) a call or check the website (tsa.gov) to make sure that you can bring babyfood through security. I know they allow formula for infants; however, not sure if they would consider babyfood a liquid? I would just hate for you to go through all the trouble of bringing it then they tell you to throw it out.
Are you trying to keep the food frozen for your trip? I usually recommend to just shop at a market when you arrive at your location and make simple purees like baked sweet potatoes, mashed avocados, bananas, rice cereal with liquid, etc..www.weelicious.com
How old is the baby. Can you simply give him fresh fruits and veggies and forgo the baby food for a while. When I had class that i took my daughter to I would just bring like a whole banana or avocado or you can scrape apple pieces or if you giving cheerios. Then you wouldn't have to worry at all if it has been out too long.
Of course she was only 8m and eating solids once a day at that point so i didnt have to worry about a lot of food.
I did homemade baby food and put it in the mason jars before we traveled. It worked fine they aren't out of the freezer too long. Only problem is airport security won't let you take as hand carry on so you have to pack it in your bag.
Hi Y.,
Just a little advise. Please make sure the airplane line allows you to bring the food on board. Even on US flights they have been really picky about containers over 3oz. So please check and ask them first how you should proceed. maybe get a note from her Dr saying that this is all she can eat as she's allergic to any other foods. Wouldn't be really a lie as you probably couldn't imagine giving her all those chemicals! :)
Anyway, it would be really upsetting if they tried to take away the food that you made for her and then you would not have anything to give her. So I would vote on a special needs diet for your baby. Other than that, I would just get one of those nice squishy travel coolers. Put at least 2 or 3 of those little frozen square thingys in it, and it will stay cold for a long time.
A.
I don't know about plane travel but when we went house boating and needed to keep meat frozen for a week, we used dry ice (colder and more compact). I also make my own baby food, but opt for store bought when traveling because its safer.
Hi, you can buy a traveling food mill, i have one, but have not had to use it yet. I got one from KIDCO, and you manually turn the handle and the food purees.
I made my own baby food as well. I would put it in a little insulated backpack that I got as a sample from a formula company. The backpack was meant for several baby bottles, but I used it for the baby food and then put ice packs in with it. I was able to take it on a 2 hour trip that way without the food melting, so I imagine it would make it another hour and a half.
I used to travel a lot with my infant and home made baby food. I would purchase the jarred baby food and empty them out, then refill them with my homemade stuff and freeze them in the jars. For some reason, the jars helped to keep it frozen longer. While I would take the suggestions of the other moms about checking with TSA, if they are in those small jars, hopefully they won't give you any grief.
Also a frozen ice pack should keep it frozen for awhile.
I bought a small babyfood blender from Babies R us and took it with me so that I could make baby food on vacation. I just packed it in my checked luggage and it worked well. It didn't take up too much space either.
Hi Y., Get an insolated lunch bag or picnic bag, with an ice pack and put it in there. Before you go make sure the airlines will allow you to take it aboard the plane, they have gotten really strict on what they will and will not allow. J.
