When you go away on vacation, it is normal to pack for the ‘what if’ situation. We all know that when you travel with a baby that gets magnified due to paranoia and fear of delays.
The only problem is that The Transportation Security Administration’s rule says you may only carry on baby food and liquids in “reasonable quantities for the duration of your itinerary.”
What constitutes and unreasonable quantity of food? That will change depending upon the length of you flight and layovers.
When packing the carry on bag, many parents take into account the fact that flights may be delayed or stranded on the tarmack for an extended period of time. During the winter months this tends to happen more often prompting some parents to overpack.
The Nytimes.com reports an instance when a couple packed ‘five or six 2-ounce jars of Gerber’s baby food and 20 ounces of Similac baby formula in two sealed 8-ounce and two sealed 2-ounce plastic bottles.’
When they approached the security counter with their 10 month old daughter airport officials deemed the food excessive and confiscated some.
“We explained the reason, that we were flying in the winter between two cities notorious for delays in bad weather, so we always pack more. The security agent said, ‘I can’t make an exception; it’s too much food for a flight that’s 2 ½ hours,’” said Dr. Soni, the mom involved.
In the end, it didn’t matter what the parents said to security officials. They had made up their minds and were going to minimize the amount of food being brought on board.
When my son was smaller and we traveled by airplane, I would bring 3 apples, bananas and oatmeal, 2 dry packs of rice cereal and 2 – 8ozs bottles with the powder already measured out. No one ever questioned the amount of food or asked about the 2 bottles of formula.
Now that the whole ordeal is behind them, the parents in this article would like to see a rule allowing parents more discretion. They also suggested that airport shops inside the security zones consider selling baby food, which I agree with.
No parent wants to carry 10 bottles of baby food on a plane with them. They just do it because they don’t have any other option.
For more TSA travel information please visit their site.
