Kit guide
The baby go-bag.
Three days for an infant or toddler, packed so one adult can carry the baby and the other carries everything else.
One page. Read it here, save the image to your phone, or print it for the fridge.
A baby's go-bag is the one most new parents realize they need the week after the baby arrives, usually at 2am during a small quake. It is also the easiest to pack, because you already own all of it. The rule: one adult's hands are on the child, so the bag has to be carried by the other adult or by a stroller.
- 1
Ready-to-feed formula
- Needs no clean water or mixing
- Three days' worth even if you breastfeed, in case
- Single-serve bottles with nipples if you can
- 2
Water for the baby
- Bottled water for mixing and for you if nursing
- Nursing parents need more water than anyone
- A few bottles in the bag, a case in the car
- 3
Diapers and wipes, three days
- About ten diapers a day for a newborn, fewer later
- Two packs of wipes; they clean everything else too
- Bags for the used ones
- 4
Clothes a size up
- Three changes, one size bigger than today
- Socks, a hat, a sweater: babies lose heat fast
- Repack when they grow
- 5
Warmth
- A blanket, a swaddle, a foil space blanket
- A sleep sack for the night in an unfamiliar place
- Nothing loose in a car seat or crib
- 6
Medications and first aid
- Infant pain reliever, the thermometer, any prescription
- Diaper cream, saline, a nasal bulb
- The pediatrician's number on paper
- 7
Papers that prove who they are
- A copy of the birth certificate and shot records
- A photo of you with the baby
- Insurance card copy; shelters and clinics ask
- 8
A way to carry them
- A soft carrier keeps your hands free
- A stroller or wagon hauls the bag and the toddler
- The car seat is the seat, even in someone else's car
- 9
Comfort
- The pacifier, the lovey, the small familiar toy
- A second of whichever one they cannot sleep without
- A board book for the long wait
- 10
Toddler food
- Pouches, puffs, crackers, shelf milk
- Their cup and a spoon
- Snacks are how a toddler waits in a line
- 11
Light and quiet
- A headlamp so your hands stay on the baby
- A small white-noise machine or app on a charged phone
- Glow sticks are a toy and a night light
- 12
Where it lives, and when to repack
- By the door with the family kit, or in the trunk
- Repack every time they go up a size
- Check the formula and medicine dates with the clock change
Feed, change, warm, soothe, prove who they are. Repack it every time they go up a size.
Get the free 72-Hour Readiness Plan
More guides
Kit guide
The 72-hour family kit, item by item.
Everything a household needs for three days with no help, and nothing it does not.
Open the guide
Home guide
A week without power.
How a normal household eats, stays clean, keeps cool or warm, and sleeps when the grid is gone for days.
Open the guide
Gear Lab guide
Backup power, ranked by what actually works.
Twelve ways to keep phones, lights and a fridge going, from best to barely.
Open the guide