Having a new born means that you are exploring new things about them every day. Being a parent, you want to provide them with every comfort while at home and even when you go out. Taking care of your baby can be particularly hectic even inside your home where everything is easy available, but when you go out with your baby, there is a certain pressure to take all the necessary things with you so you don’t feel helpless if you don’t have anything when you need it.
But how to decide which things to pack in your baby’s diaper bag that are most important. Read along to know which things you will need the most when you are out with your baby.
Diaper Bag essentials:
First things first, what are the things that you will really need in case of a baby emergency? Some things are essentials and some things are extra, and you will need essential every time you leave the house with your baby even will you leave for a mere 3- 4 hours. When going out for a short period of time, you can pack the diaper bag light, and when going out for days, you will obviously need a large supply of these things.
- Diapers:
This one is obvious. Diaper bag must contain diapers, this is the most basic rule. But how much? If you are going out with your baby for a drive of 4 or 5 hours, you will need 2, 3 diapers but if you are going to be out for a few days, you should pack more. Of course this also depends on the general routine of your baby and how much they wet their diapers in a day and how soon their wet diapers need changing. A good rule of thumb is that you pack 1 diaper for every two hours.
- Wipes:
Baby wipes are very helpful in most critical situations, when you need to clean baby’s bum, or your hands for instance. After diapers, wipes are most important things to keep in your baby’s diaper bags.
You can put a full pack of wipes in the bag. There are small sized packs available in the market that contain moisture in the wipes and are travel friendly.
- Ointment/ skin cream:
Several travel size tubes are available that you can keep in your bag. You can have need of it anywhere which is why you should never forget to take an ointment with you in baby’s diaper bag.
- Diaper changing pad:
Most diaper bags have their own changing pads that you can use while changing your baby’s diapers. If you want to stick with the already available changing pad, that’s good. But if you need to take it out, keep one spare that can be taken out of the bag. The separate diaper changing bags are larger in size, are easier to be removed from the bag, and also sometimes have pockets in which you can keep diapers and other things.
- Small disposal bags:
After changing a diaper, you will need to throw away the used one. You will need a disposal bag for this purpose, as there is not a waste bin available every time. You can put used diapers and dirty clothes in these bags, take them back home and then take them out to dispose the diapers and wash the clothes.
These bags are also perfect for used pacifiers and nipples.
- Alternate outfits:
These are also essentials. There can be any incident such as excessive spit ups, milk blow out and clothes getting wet due to diaper leakage. These extreme situations call for extreme measures. You must keep one or two spare outfits in baby’s bag. This will help you change baby’s clothes if and when necessary.
- Formula and pumped milk:
If you are feeding formula milk to your baby, you will need it when you go out as the baby can get hungry any time. You might not want to keep the whole can in the diaper bag as it can take a lot of space. The better thing to do is to keep a formula dispenser, which allows you to keep measured milk powder in three compartments of the dispenser. You should also have 2 milk bottles and one water bottle to feed your baby.
If you feed breast milk to your baby, you won’t need any additional supplies but if you use pumped milk, you will need 2, 3 packets and one or two bottles to feed the baby.
- Burp clothes:
Or bibs, are essential as the baby can burp up milk and spit up on their clothes and certainly, you don’t want it to happen. Keep a large amount of bibs to tie around the baby’s neck during and after feeding to collect and clean any burped up milk and keep the baby’s clothes clean.
- Pacifiers:
If you use pacifiers, store them in a clean box or bag. You can keep extra bottles and nipples with pacifiers too.
- Hand sanitizer:
Before feeding your baby, you must clean your hands. This rules apply too after using toilet or touching things you don’t know who has touched before. Clean your hands before holding your baby to protect them from any germs.
- Toys for baby:
Babies need toys like rattles and plastic balls to play. You may not feel the need for them while going out, but rattles can be a lot of help when the baby starts crying without any reason and you don’t know what to do. These toys help to entertain them. Even if you don’t want to keep many toys, keep one or two rattling toys or plastic balls in your bag.
These are the things that you should essentially keep in your baby’s diaper bag. There are a whole lot of extra things that are optional and depend on your need for them. After putting the essentials in the bag, if you feel that you have need for anything else, you can keep it in the bag.
