Disability Travel - Packing medical supplies, does it help to keep them separate?

We are going to have a carry ons worth of medical devices, feeding pump, pump bags, formula, diapers, oxygen supplies, in addition to his portable oxygen concentrator which is already the size of a carry on. Will we run into less trouble if it is a bag of all medical supplies that we are bringing or is it okay to intersperse the medical supplies with our other carry on items? Besides his medical needs he will need a change of clothing toothbrush, toys, snacks and other entertainment. It won't be a full carry on worth of stuff, so mixing it, or some of it, in with medical supplies may be tempting.

My experience is that it is better to keep medical supplies separate, and to keep a very close eye on the bag, especially while the TSA is going through it. Make sure they use fresh gloves before they touch a single thing, and know exactly how many bottles of pills/drugs you have. Twice the TSA has "accidently" set 1 or 2 prescription bottles aside as they snooped through them, and if I hadn't been watching closely, I would not have gotten them back. Be prepared for a whole lot of nosy questions - sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't, but do remember that the TSA does not have the right to ask nosy medical questions like "Why do you use this drug/device?" My recent answer is something like "These were prescribed by my physician" and that's it, no details.

You might consider using a large zip-lock for the other stuff, so that you could easily lift it out of the medical supplies bag without it getting scattered around. Plus, it never hurts to have an extra zip-lock in your bag :) - my kid gets airsick sometimes and I really need one then!

We are going to have a carry ons worth of medical devices, feeding pump, pump bags, formula, diapers, oxygen supplies, in addition to his portable oxygen concentrator which is already the size of a carry on. Will we run into less trouble if it is a bag of all medical supplies that we are bringing or is it okay to intersperse the medical supplies with our other carry on items? Besides his medical needs he will need a change of clothing toothbrush, toys, snacks and other entertainment. It won't be a full carry on worth of stuff, so mixing it, or some of it, in with medical supplies may be tempting.

There are two aspects of this. You can proritise your packing on the basis of what you need when, or you can prioritise according to the ease of going through the security. In any case, you will have to re arrange your stuff during or after you go through the security, which means additional time. DO plan for additional time it would take. Some TSA personal choose to test every little piece of equipment for explosives. I would say prioritise your packing according to the ease of retrieval of what you need during the flight, because when you get to your destination it will still be relatively organised. That will also be closer to consolidating your supplies. I try not to mix my CPAP supplies with other electronics. I have my blood sugar monitor and other diabetic supplies in one bag and CPAP in another, instead of packing them in the same bag. I find that more convenient, as I want my blood sugar monitor and my injections to be more readily accessible than CPAP.

There are two aspects of this. You can proritise your packing on the basis of what you need when, or you can prioritise according to the ease of going through the security. In any case, you will have to re arrange your stuff during or after you go through the security, which means additional time. DO plan for additional time it would take. Some TSA personal choose to test every little piece of equipment for explosives. I would say prioritise your packing according to the ease of retrieval of what you need during the flight, because when you get to your destination it will still be relatively organised. That will also be closer to consolidating your supplies. I try not to mix my CPAP supplies with other electronics. I have my blood sugar monitor and other diabetic supplies in one bag and CPAP in another, instead of packing them in the same bag. I find that more convenient, as I want my blood sugar monitor and my injections to be more readily accessible than CPAP.

Thank you for your reply. It definitely gives me something to think about. We are planning on arriving three hours in advance, so that will hopefully give us time to rearrange things after security, unless security itself takes forever.

My understanding is, in Israel security should be pretty normal, but in London they are probably going to have a harder time with the equipment and meds, especially with the prescription labels all in Hebrew.

Bulkhead seats don't sound like a good idea to me, since I will want meds and machines down where we can get to them easily, and we don't have the under the seat storage with a bulk head seat, right?

Thank you for your replies to me threads!