Traveling with kids is an eye opening experience in many ways. They open doors to experiences you may never have had on your own and they also come with their own travel dilemmas. Potty training, anyone? One of the funniest to me is the issue of milk. My son is a fiend when it comes to milk. He rarely settles for juice and will only drink water if we insist that he must, but he will drink as much milk as we are willing to give him. When we are traveling this can create a number of challenges.
It all starts at the airport. First, with airport security becoming stricter and stricter, carrying any liquid items has become a nightmare. Although they have become more lax when it comes to "medically necessary" fluids and those for babies, I am always doubtful we will make it through with what we need. And milk isn't always an easy thing to get in the airport. I know, I know, you are thinking - what about all of those Starbucks? Well, buying a cup of milk is fine, but that only gets you through one milk session. Plus it is nice to have it in a sealed container. I usually buy the Horizon individual serve packs and try to get those through, but when that doesn't work, we spend some time shopping for milk. More than once we have accidentally purchased milk well beyond its expiration date. Luckily my son is usually clamoring for milk so we open it immediately. I feel sorry for anyone that waits to open something like that once they are sealed inside the plane!
Once you are in-route, there are still more issues to face. Many airlines are doing away with most food anyhow, and milk is apparently not a highly requested item, so it is usually not available from the drink cart. If it is, it may only be available on flights that serve breakfast. As regular coach travelers, where high-class coffee service with real milk doesn't happen, we have been on flights where we have begged the stewardess, in the interests of all passengers on board, to give us whatever milk was available. They are usually kind enough to offer us the milk remainders following the first class cabin after-dinner coffee service. I have since started packing a formula dispenser full of powdered milk, just in case.
After arriving at a destination, the milk dilemma doesn't get much easier. I am always tense until I see the room. I have to know if there is a refrigerator or even a mini-bar that isn't packed too full to accommodate a container of milk or two. That early morning milk-fix is a hard one because it takes us at least an hour to get ready to face the world outside the hotel room, so it has to be on-hand. In an emergency, I have been known to just get a bucket of ice to keep some milk cold overnight.
Then there is the hilarity of ordering milk in foreign countries. When we went to Italy, we never managed to get it right. We always ordered "latte freddo" (cold milk), and indicated that it was for our son, who was almost three at the time. Without fail, they brought us warm (and sometimes hot) milk. After much frustration on our part and numerous tears on our son's, I finally asked an English-speaking restaurant owner what we were doing wrong. Unfortunately his explanation was that his staff was stupid, but I think it may have had something to do with the European habit of serving milk to children, warmed and in a bottle, until they are 5 years old or so. We had the same thing happen in Tahiti when we were dealing with a French waiter, so it wasn't just our sorry Italian skills.
As you can imagine, we have also dealt with our share of putrid, curdling sippy cups of milk at the end of the day. But, it is just one easily forgotten inconvenience in the grand scheme of vacation. One that won't keep me home anyhow.
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