I’m just back from Portugal, where I discovered the latest pain in the arse for parents travelling with babies and tots: while the ridiculous ban on baby food is no more, any bottles, cartons, jars or pots of breast milk, formula milk, baby medicine or baby foods have to be scanned.

One at a time.

Very slowly.

We had three cartons of formula, and the scanning took more than ten minutes. That’s just the scanning, not the queuing while you watch other people’s baby things being scanned.

One at a time.

Very slowly.

I don’t know if this is something specific to Faro or if it’s rolling out elsewhere – there appear to be new regulations incoming, so for example on our flight we were given baby lifejackets, which all airlines need to do by the end of the year – but if you’re travelling with wee ones it’s a very good idea to get to the airport as soon as you can and go straight to security. We were on time, the airport was largely empty and we still nearly missed the flight.

Alternatively, of course, you could be sensible and NEVER EVER TRAVEL WITH A BABY EVER.