Flying with infants.. baby food question.

I am getting different info from the agent I talked to and from the website.

Basically, DS eats home made baby food. SO I put it all in containers. I wanted to Carry it on in a soft sided cooler. The agent told me that you can't carry it on because they may decide that it looks like a "gel" and take it away. She said I had to check it ($$) in a hard sided cooler.

Then I look online at the airtran website and this is what I saw.

"You must declare the following items at the screening checkpoint if they are more than 3 oz not contained in a zip-top plastic bag.

?Baby formula/milk (to include breast milk) and baby food in containers if a baby or small child is traveling "

AND

"For carry-on baggage, all customers traveling on AirTran Airways will be restricted to one carry-on item and one personal item. Personal items include handbags, umbrellas, walking sticks, coats, cameras, reading matter, infant food, briefcases, and laptop computers."

I took it to mean that I could bring the soft sided cooler as a carry on.. and his diaper bag as my other carry on. In other words.. my carryon is the diaper bag and my second personal item is the baby food. AND that baby food is allowed on the flight.
It is enough food for 3 days.

Anyone have any experience. I called the airline again and they have NO idea since TSA doesn't tell them anything. I am now calling TSA.. grrr.. I need to be spending this time packing!!

Re: Flying with infants.. baby food question.

Alexa only eats homemade food.

I brought enough food for like 3 days when we were traveling. I put each item in a tupperware adn each tupperware in an individual ziploc bag.

They were a little obnoxious at JFK.. .mainly cause the TSA agent didni't knwo what to do.

All they did was pull us aside... open the cooler and wiped each one down with those circle pads and ran it through the machine...


easy peasy.... they did NOTHING in teh way back from Orlando.

Pack your food... take your time and be ADMANT that the food go with you and that is the only thing the baby can eat

Re: Flying with infants.. baby food question.

Forget it.. I finally got through to the TSA.. a little scary by the way. I had to givem them my name, spelling and contact number.

The answer was.. You can bring as much liquid, formula or breastmilk and baby food as your baby would need for that flight. You have to declare it to the agent before you go through security. Anything beyond that has to be checked. Boo... Checking bags is SOOO expensive. We are spending 60$ round trip just to check bags. Thank God they still don't charge to check the stroller and the carseat.

Re: Flying with infants.. baby food question.

The carry on issue is different than the security issue. As far as security is concerned (TSA), as long as you have the baby with you, you really should not have any issues at all (I have even had a few full bottles of water with me and they allowed it since it was "for the baby"), as long as you open the bag and put all that in it's own box thingy (yes, it's a technical term ) to go through the x-ray machine.
As far as the carry on issue, you should be fine with that as well.

To make your self not too nuts about it, could you give the baby jarred food for the trip?

Re: Flying with infants.. baby food question.

Posted by Blissful

Alexa only eats homemade food.

I brought enough food for like 3 days when we were traveling. I put each item in a tupperware adn each tupperware in an individual ziploc bag.

They were a little obnoxious at JFK.. .mainly cause the TSA agent didni't knwo what to do.

All they did was pull us aside... open the cooler and wiped each one down with those circle pads and ran it through the machine...


easy peasy.... they did NOTHING in teh way back from Orlando.

Pack your food... take your time and be ADMANT that the food go with you and that is the only thing the baby can eat

Re: Flying with infants.. baby food question.

Posted by FelAndJon

The carry on issue is different than the security issue. As far as security is concerned (TSA), as long as you have the baby with you, you really should not have any issues at all (I have even had a few full bottles of water with me and they allowed it since it was "for the baby"), as long as you open the bag and put all that in it's own box thingy (yes, it's a technical term ) to go through the x-ray machine.
As far as the carry on issue, you should be fine with that as well.

To make your self not too nuts about it, could you give the baby jarred food for the trip?

Re: Flying with infants.. baby food question.

Posted by sfp0701

Posted by Blissful

Alexa only eats homemade food.

I brought enough food for like 3 days when we were traveling. I put each item in a tupperware adn each tupperware in an individual ziploc bag.

They were a little obnoxious at JFK.. .mainly cause the TSA agent didni't knwo what to do.

All they did was pull us aside... open the cooler and wiped each one down with those circle pads and ran it through the machine...


easy peasy.... they did NOTHING in teh way back from Orlando.

Pack your food... take your time and be ADMANT that the food go with you and that is the only thing the baby can eat

Soo do you think I should try to get it through and if not, I'll just check it all? Did you bring a cooler and diaper bag as your carry on? My DH is brining a small suitcase.. SO I was hoping to carry on the cooler and diaper bag.

Message edited 1/6/2010 6:02:29 PM.

Re: Flying with infants.. baby food question.

I'm typing this from Sarasota now! We flew Southwest from Islip yesterday. My carry on was the diaper bag. In it was two fresh pumped 5 ounce bottles, one frozen 5 ounce pack of BM and a small (baby food jar size) tupperware with zuccini puree that I froze on its side then added sweet potato mash and froze so when they thawed they'd be seperate (like mom's awesome jell-o parfaits when I was a kid! ) for lunch and another small tupperware of baby cereal for breakfast. At the security check, I ran the bag through with no problems, questions or special searches.

Our flight was 7am so I planned on giving Nolan his 7:30 breakfast cereal on the plane and although we were due to land at 10am and be to SIL's by noon, I still prepared and carried on his lunch just in case. And sure enough our flight was delayed two hours and we switched planes before take off. So he at breakfast sitting in the first plane on the ground and ate lunch in the hour car ride to SIL's. I pumed 7 ounces during our flight too under my nursing cover!

And because we are just visiting family, after we got settled, DH, DS and I ran to Target to buy diapers, wipes and cereal then to Publix for a sweet potato (his first and favorite) that I baked and sieved and zuccinis (2nd day and loving it/no reaction) that I steamed and blended at SIL's! From shopping to making took about 2 hours of our day. Boring but that's what he's having until Saturday. He got some mashed banana for the first time this morning with breakfast! So that's his new introduction/allergy check for the next few days.

There was no way I was checking any food of DS's... especially since I found "your luggage has been checked" cards in both of our checked bags!!!


It'd be a crying shame if you get hassled with three days worth of homemade baby food. If there's no convenient way for you to make food while in FL, even if you do the simplest repeated favorite, I would personally carry on my three day supply and confidently just run my cooler bag through the scanner, followed by my diaper bag while holding DS through the walk through, without saying or asking a thing and really what are they going to say? What else could it be. Take me aside and look at it if you want, I'm taking it on the plane and not checking my baby's food to ride under a plane out of my sight. Make an extra for a taste test!

Good luck and have fun! It was totally not near as bad as I'd thought. Nolan was a complete angel on the plane delay and all! People were coming up to us with compliments!

ETA: And Southwest was awesome to fly with a baby. The crew was great and even saved us a row (the flight was not booked so we got to take the carseat on and DS had his own seat) when we got on and the plane started to fill up and they saved the same row when we had to switch planes.

Don't forget to ask for his wings!!!! Great for the baby book!

Message edited 1/6/2010 9:58:49 PM.