Anybody hassled by TSA for too much formula?
 

The official TSA policy is “When traveling with your infant or toddler, in the absence of suspicious activity or items, greater than 3 ounces of baby formula, breast milk, or juice are permitted through the security checkpoint in reasonable quantities for the duration of your itinerary”.

I love rules that have vague terms like “reasonable” in them. Just curious if anybody has had TSA tell them that they’ve exceeded the magic quantity of “reasonable”.

We didn't have any problems traveling a number of times with our infants from Canada and through Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco on a number of occasions in the past 12 months. Having 12 hrs of travel in total with twins, we were carrying about 10 baby bottles with boiled water without the formula mixed in yet and didn't have any problems. A few times they did the litmus type tests.

The answer is no. We were not ever hassled significantly by the TSA about bringing extra formula.

We were, however, given a really hard time at LHR. Simply atrocious (but it wasn't the TSA).

I've combed the net and people contact me through the article. I've had parents who have told me that they've flown halfway around the world with formula for the whole journey and they have not run into any problems with security.

What has been a problem is the age of the child. Once they hit about age 3, security can get sticky. What was allowed on one flight, just a few months later is not, which can be confusing to kids. But those of you with small, formula fed infants seem to be fine.

Like schwarm, never been hassled by TSA, but we get a ton of grief from security at ARN. Even with a doctor's note.

I brought a half gallon of milk on a 1 hour flight with an 18mo last year. The TSA folks didn't bat an eye.

In January before boarding my flight to the US in Amsterdam, security made me dump my bottle of apple juice into a sippy cup for my toddler, saying I couldn't carry it on unless it was clearly in a container for the child. But otherwise I haven't had any problems.

I haven't had any problems (but I only fly relatively short flights with my kids), but there have been reported problems in the news. Specifically, I remember a doctor, an actual MD, being told he had too much formula for his child.

Apparently, "reasonable" means your run of the mill barely employable TSA agent knows more about what a child needs than a medical doctor.