As a parent I have learned that what you have or don’t have in your diaper bag is vital to overall outcome of your day. If you are missing something essential, you may have the worst day of your life but chances are it won’t ever happen again. Okay maybe that’s a little extreme, but really missing a vital item from your diaper bag can lead to disaster in so many ways!
Let me share with you our must have diaper bag essentials. These are items that we have learned to always have in there because you never know what could happen in your day: blowouts, hungry child, cranky baby, the possibilities are endless.
First of all, it all depends on what your diaper bag you own for what you will be able to fit in it. We personally love our Fawn Design bag because there is plenty of room for all our essentials, but it’s also easy to take everything out and clean the inside. We are able to fit everything you see, plus more, but we make sure we know where everything is so that it’s easy to get to if you need to deal with a blowout situation or screaming child/baby.
It’s important to have a bag inside your diaper bag that carries the little health/cleaning things you made need. We love the just reaching in our bag and grabbing our bag of goodies that carries everything that may get lost in the bag if separate: Tide pen, Band-Aids, Kleenex, sanitizer, clippers, Tylenol, extra binkie. We also want to have an ointment on hand incase there is a diaper rash or something that needs extra care so we always have our Tubby Todd All Over Ointment. We carry bags for diapers because we all know how bad they can smell when they get filled up, so we put dirty diapers in there before throwing them away. We also use these bags when we have a blow out and the clothes get ruined. They keep the stink and mess inside the bag and off of the other diaper bag items.
It’s also good to have treats for toddlers handy. Trust me, if you are thinking of taking a toddler to the mall for a long shopping trip and they don’t want to do it you are going to want a collection of different snacks: fruit leather, granola bars and suckers are a few of our favorites.
We also make sure to have an outfit in the diaper bag that is an all-in-one, meaning one piece that will cover them completely. If you have a blow out that gets on their clothes you want to have a change of clothes that you can get them into quickly. Our favorites come from Gap Kids and June & January.
Lets say you have a toddler and a baby like us. You are going to want to have somethings to keep them entertained and warm. Our baby is teething, but she also loves her Sophie Giraffe to chew on, squeeze and hold in her little hands. Keeps her entertained and the squeaking hasn’t become too obnoxious…yet. Our son on the other hand needs his “guys” to entertain him. Having favorite little figures in your diaper bag is great just in case you are in a grocery store and they want to buy a new toy. Pull out a guy that he loves and it will keep him distracted. We love having books around our kids, but sometime you can’t trust your kids with a book, unless it’s an Indestructibles book. These can be held by any child, young or old, and there is no way that they could ruin it.
We love to keep a swaddle in our diaper bag just in case you need to wrap your babe to sleep or cover some bear legs following a blow out. Living here in Utah, the weather can change on a dime. Having an extra swaddle in the diaper bag is just a smart idea all around.
Are you nursing? Keeping a Covered Goods cover in your diaper bag is essential. My wife loves having a Covered Goods cover in our diaper bag because we could be anywhere and our baby gets hungry. She may not be able to take her into the bathroom to feed her so she’ll pull out the Covered Goods cover and no one has any idea what is going on. This has been a lifesaver at the movies, theme parks, the park, school, etc.
Last, but not least, you clearly need to have diapers as a must have for your diaper bag essentials. We always make sure that we have enough of each size diaper that our kids are wearing. Thankfully our Fawn Design bag has perfect pockets for both sizes and a great place for putting our wipe holder. We also love to have a changing pad because you never know how recent they cleaned the changing station whereever you are changing your child. My personal favorite is the one from Gathre.
Keep all these things in your diaper bag and I promise you, your days will go a lot smoother.
