There is nothing worse than being 20 minutes from home with smelly baby and realising you’ve left the vital baby wipes on the change table, or worse, the dreaded poonami explosion has happened, and you don’t have all you need to deal with it.

The safest solution is to have a dedicated bag for when you head out and about.  Here is our definitive list of what should go in the it.

• Nappies. Pack as many as you think you’ll need and then add three more. Running short of clean nappies leads to unhappy moments for your little one and you.
• Storage bags. Pop a few compostable or reused plastic bags in for dirty nappies when you’re out. They also come in handy for stowing anything mucky – clothes, shoes, toys – until you get home.
• Baby wipes. You can buy ‘travel packs’, but even more handy – and cheaper – is decanting some of your home supply into a suitable plastic container.
• Tissues or small cloth wipes. A small packet for everything you don’t want to use a baby wipe on.
• Nappy/ Barrier cream. Buy a second tube and keep it in the bag. You know what your baby’s bottom likes so don’t leave home without it.
• Baby food. Keep a bottle of emergency baby food and a couple of dry biscuits (sealed in a zip lock bag) in the nappy bag plus some spare spoons. Don’t forget to throw away any opened but uneaten jars of food.
• Baby change mat. If you have a purpose designed nappy bag it will probably  have a change mat. If your doesn’t, a cloth nappy or hand towel does the trick.
• Hat. Keep both a beanie and a sunhat to cover all weather options.
• Spare change of clothes. Or two if there’s toilet-training going on! There are so many ways that a small child can go through a set of clothes, you’d be a fool not to take spares.
• Sunscreen. Keep a roll-on infant sunscreen in the bag at all times. The roll-on’s won’t leak and you can spread it across his skin with your hand for complete coverage.
• Small toy and book. Hand these out when you’ve exhausted all your own methods of keeping your baby entertained and you’ve still got twenty minutes in heavy traffic to get through.
• Bottle feeding paraphernalia. You can’t go far without everything you need to feed your baby. So if you bottle feed, make sure you’ve got formula, sterilised bottles, boiled water and some method to heat the bottle. Most cafes are happy to help.
• A cloth nappy. So handy for all sorts of situations. Keep one rolled up and tucked away for when it’s needed.
• A spare dummy and/or cuddly. Small people who need dummies are inconsolable if they lose them, so keep a spare or two, in the bag at all time.
• Parent must-haves. Pack a snack for when exhaustion sets in and the blood-sugar levels suddenly drops, and a bottle of water, because lugging your baby and the nappy bag around all day is thirsty work.

REMEMBER!

Try to keep your (as opposed to the baby’s) possessions separate. Don’t be tempted to use the nappy bag as an additional handbag because the day you lose your car keys in the depths of the bag, will be the day it begins to hail while your arms are full of howling child.

This article was written by Ella Walsh for Kidspot.

Read more on Kidspot:

• What The Parenting Books Don’t Tell You
• Developmental Milestones for Newborns
• A Guide To Tummy Time For New Parents