The Home Warrior suffers from heartburn on a fairly regular basis. For years, he tried to deal using various methods—daily pills for prevention, OTC antacids, avoiding certain foods, etc. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that he found a sustainable way to deal with it when a pregnant friend shared her secret method: baking soda. Seriously. A teaspoon or so dissolved into water will make heartburn disappear almost immediately.*

This has been so reliable that a couple of years ago he started traveling with baking soda to avoid heartburn on vacations. For longer trips, he would just tape up the cardboard box we use at home and put it in a Ziploc bag. Of course, I couldn’t help but give him grief for yet another example of his typical overpacking tendencies. In response, for our Alaskan cruise vacation, he just dumped a bunch of baking soda in a Ziploc and stuck it in his suitcase. (You can probably tell where this one is going, right?) He even labeled it: “Baking soda for heartburn” on the outside of the bag. Needless to say, when TSA searched our bags when we came home through Vancouver, it was taken.

The moral of the story is this: if you are bringing white powder of any kind to an airport, leave it in its original packaging!! Whether it’s Splenda, baking soda, some sort of cleaning agent, whatever. If you want it to arrive at your final destination, don’t tempt the agents by having a random bag of white powder in your suitcase. To make matters even easier, now Arm & Hammer has a nice plastic bottle with a closeable lid. Although I’m still waiting for them to come out with single-serve packets…..

*Note: Road Warriorette is not a physician, so like with any OTC medication, consult your doctor before using baking soda for heartburn.