I am a 68 year old scc survivor with no tongue and no ability to swallow. All my nutrition is through bolus feedings with a syringe into my g-tube. I use Nestle Isosource 1.5 liquid formula. In my travel in the US, I have always carried all of my tube feeding supplies with me. I can pack 8 days worth (2 cases) into one checked bag (35 lbs). This gets to be more of a hassle if the stay will be over a week, and I am not sure about getting through customs in Europe.

Does anyone have any experience with foreign travel with a feeding tube, especially to Europe? My wife and I would like to travel to Spain in the next year, and I am trying to see what my options are. I have not been able to locate any suppliers of tube feeding formula or supplies in Spain, though I am sure that they exist.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Earl Johnson

Like Brian, I use blended foods. I live in CA and go to England several times a year as well as Spain. I do take some cartons on commercial formula. And I do buy things similar to "Ensure" in Europe. And I use the Ensure as a base for blended food. I don't always eat as well as I like, but if I am gone only for a couple of weeks I think it is OK. I don't always get access to a blender, so often I just add proteins powder and olive oil to my blend. get lots of cals that way. Not as easy to get the right stuff in the UK, Spain and France a bit better. One think, very difficult to get was syringes. On my last trip i was down to one!!!!

I travelled all over the UK using two things:

1). An inexpensive blender and fine mesh strainer I bought in London and left in Ireland
2). Amazon. They were amazing. We travelled around quite a bit and seein as I amPart formula - part blended diet, their deliveries were important. I used a brand of liquid formula (meal replacement) called Saturo and it was great. I would order ahead for delivery at the hotel if our next stop (we stayed about a week in each spot). Only once we’re they a day late. And every hotel was more than willing to accommodate the receipt of the Amazon parcel ahead of our arrival. Saturo is made in Germany.

We ran into a hiccup with Ireland seeing as they do not have Amazon. I just made sure I carried enough liquid formula into Ireland to cover our stay there.

I was tickled with how WONDERFUL the people were and how well Amazon worked.