Travelling with Milk

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1

I’m bringing my toddler on a trip to India (road trip exploring a few cities + a few more remote areas) and was wondering…

While I do plan on bringing some powdered milk, I was thinking… maybe I can shove a few bottles of UHT milk into the hold luggage, which will mostly be empty.

Thoughts?

My worries are twofold:

  • import rules for India (can I bring it?)
  • heat while traveling, while UHT milk will be ok refrigerated, will it be ok in the 40c+ temperatures of the car when parked?

Or should I just stick to a kettle + milk powder?

(I’m conscious I can buy milk there - but especially in the more remote areas, my worry is on the availability)

2

You can get Nestle’s powder milk in the pharmacies in India. They come in sealed aluminum cans. And, when you enter the pharmacy to buy it, don’t get scammed by women with babies on tow, asking you to buy a can for them – they will sell it immediately by the ‘spoon’.

I would be more concerned about exposure to bugs and viruses for the toddler…

1 Like
3

How long are you going for? Bringing a can of powdered milk should last a while.

I think UHT will be fine too.

4

I would very strongly recommend to buy a water-filtering device (prior to the ‘kettling’), and very useful as addition in remote areas, where you might find yourself very thirsty and with no kettle. We use this one (you can buy it in Transa or Baechli) MINI | Sawyer Products to all of our ‘remote outings’ (remote, means, European remote, not Swiss remote, which might mean Graubunden or Ticino :smiley: ) and the company behind are also very generous, offering free filters in Africa, as a % of their revenues.

Cheers

5

Don’t bring UHT milk. The heat in a parked car could spoil the milk rapidly. You’ll be able to tell it has gone off by taste/texture but as there are a 1001 ways that you child could get ill in India, I wouldn’t make it 1002.

A toddler would partially be on solids anyway so it’s not going to be too much of a problem if you have to wait for the evening to make up some powdered milk.

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6

I was very much planning to use bottled water for the milk - and boiling it for extra measure.

We did the Himalayas two years ago, and had no issues finding bottled water throughout… so not too worried about pre-filtering water.

7

Hold luggage will be pressurised to equivalent of 2,500m, so leaks are possible. Avoid connecting flights particularly via airports in the Middle East where temperatures on the ramp can be extreme.