Wednesday, June 29, 2011

What do you really need in your diaper bag?

Before we had Alice we read a LOT of books on birthing and babies and we were made to think that the diaper bag was a super important thing. The truth is it's not.
Yes sometimes you need a lot of gear but day to day quick outings to the park or grocery store don't require hauling around a huge bag of blankets, diapers, bottles and other paraphernalia. We see a lot of mothers pushing strollers with huge bags.

It took us a good 6 months to figure out we were bringing too much with us. We wanted to be prepared for everything but seriously, a trip to the grocery store does not require 10 diapers, 100 wipes and a change of clothes.


Our first bag was called the TARDIS (it was bigger on the inside), and fully loaded was probably 5kg!
Inventory of the TARDIS:
  • 5 diapers
  • 20 disposable wipes
  • garbage bag
  • change pad
  • 1 onesie
  • 1 pair pants
  • 1 hat
  • 1 pr socks
  • 1 shirt
  • 1 sweater
  • 1 large blanket
  • 2 receiving blankets
  • 2 pacifiers
  • 2 sets of  nursing pads
  • bottle of water
  • extra shirt for mom
  • 2 toys
  • 1 bib
  • baggie of granola or cereal
Seriously overkill. I'm sure that on some days we had even more than that.

The reality is, we're never away from home or a car (which will store the extras) for longer than a couple hours. On most trips out none of that stuff was getting used. Sometimes Alice would need to be fed and sometimes changed, and that was only on the trips longer than a couple hours. Everything else is superfluous.


Now we bring:
  • 2 diapers
  • 10 disposable wipes
  • Changepad
  • 2 receiving blankets
The change pad we have folds out and stores all the other items. It has a velcro strap to attach to the stroller. That's seriously all you need. We always bring a bottle of water for ourselves, sometimes a small one for Alice too or we share. Alice has a couple toys attached to the stroller also. If we plan on going to the park we'll bring a blanket to sit on and a snack.

We also recently went from a 50lb travel system to a 15lb light-weight stroller. This was an awesome change, pushing a heavy stroller with a bunch of gear and a kid that keeps getting bigger and heavier is not my idea of fun. This new stroller (A Jeep Cherokee btw) takes no effort now, it still seems to be durable and best of all I can open and fold it with one hand. Going around the mall with the old stroller and having to wait ages for the elevators which were always filled with what appeared to be perfectly able-bodied but lazy tweens is very trying. Now I just take Alice out, fold the stroller with my free hand and go up the escalator.

What's in YOUR diaper bag?

2 comments:

  1. I guarantee you more stuff will be added to the bag when she gets older! My boyfriend's sister has 2 kids with another on the way and she always has an overflowing bag to accommodate for their trouble. Then again, they are pretty messy kids.

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  2. I hope to keep the diaperbag to a minimum even as she gets older. The only thing I think I would need to add would be snacks for her.

    I imagine if there are multiple kids or if someone formula feeds they would need to haul around a lot more stuff.

    I just don't understand the need for a giant bag packed full of stuff just for a trip to the store, I see it every day and it boggles my mind!

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