'Humiliated' mum in tears as easyJet staff charge her for breast milk

A mother has hit out at following what she called a "humiliating" incident where she was informed she'd have to pay extra for taking breast milk and a breast pump on her flight.

Daisy Crawford said the easyJet the staff at Bristol Airport were "stony faced" and showed "no understanding" of the distress caused by the security procedure. On Sunday, April 27, Ms Crawford travelled from Bristol to Belfast after spending time with friends and family in Devon.

Although she passed through airport security without any problems, at the boarding gate, she was confronted with a £50 charge for carrying pumped breast milk.

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She alleged that the staff "made no attempt" to understand her circumstance, saying she had a premature baby, meaning the pumped breast milk would be crucial for its health, reports .

Ms Crawford shared with Bristol Live that gate personnel said she had "no choice" but to pay unless she could fit all her breast milk and pumping gear into one cabin bag.

The 40 year old mother of three tried to pull up online information about travelling with breast milk but was didn't have any signal and said she was told by staff, "we've given you time."

Ms Crawford continued: "The staff were very stony faced and said we're just doing our job and we're people too. We're not trying to upset you." In response, the mother of three expressed: "Well this is very upsetting for me."

Following this she began to remove clothes from her bag to make room for her milk and breast pump. "I felt adamant that I wasn't going to pay," she said.

"The shuttle bus was full of everybody waiting so they were saying you're going to miss your flight. They then threatened to fly without me," she added.

"Eventually I wore a jumper, jacket and coat and put my flip flops in my pockets, so that I could fit the cool bag in my bag. At this point I was absolutely furious, upset and humiliated. I did loads of research beforehand and it says everywhere that you are free to travel with as much milk as you need and it wasn't a problem on the way out.

"Why should I have to use space in an already small baggage allowance to carry equipment that is essential to me as a breastfeeding mother? It's medically necessary, and I don't think someone with other medical equipment would be expected to fit it in their hand luggage or be charged extra. That means I'm being treated differently, and that travelling potentially costs more for me because I'm breastfeeding."

To clarify the rules, the government website advises: "You can carry breast milk in hand luggage even if you're not travelling with a baby."

Additionally, it states that you can travel with unlimited quantities of breast milk, provided that "individual containers of breast milk must hold no more than 2,000ml."

However, each container will require screening at the security checkpoint, and airport staff may need to open them to inspect the liquids.

An easyJet spokesperson said: "We are very sorry for Ms Crawford's experience while boarding her flight as this is not the level of service we expect. We advise customers to carry baby milk in their cabin baggage and do allow customers an additional free of charge bag for a breast pump and milk. We ask them to let us know in advance of travel so there are no issues at the gate."