Car Emergency Kit for Baby

As every new parent has discovered, babies need a lot of stuff when you leave the house. Before you become a parent, you swear that you will be a minimalist (or at least I did) but then you quickly discover why the diaper bag exists. Inside that HUGE bag are your child's diapers, a change of clothing or two, a few toys, formula (if they need it) and/or food, etc. I remember trying to get Molly ready to leave the house a few weeks after she was born and I was overwhelmed. I left some really important things at home (ermm diapers!) and that was when I decided to make a car emergency kit for her. I also learned how to better stock my diaper bag (but that is a post for another day). Today I will be showing you how I made a quick and simple car emergency kit for baby. 

I got a plastic shoe box and labeled it because I like my label maker. Next I put a change of clothing, a spare diaper, some wipes, a bottle of formula, a pouch of food (when she was eating real food) and a thin receiving blanket inside of it. I made sure to put a changing pad with the kit. 

I do make sure to update the box every few months. When I took photos of it today, I switched out the pants to ones that actually fit (the ones in the box were 6-9 mo and Molly is wearing 18 mo clothing now). I also took out the old bottle of formula and put in a toddler bottle of milk. I checked the pouch of food to make sure it hadn't expired and then put it back in the car. If we were using disposable diapers, I'd check that those were the appropriate size too. All of that took 5 minutes. 

I keep the shoe box behind the passenger seat in the car so it is easy to find and since Molly doesn't need the floor space, it fits perfectly. It is also in an easy to reach location which is important when you are holding a wiggly child. 

I also keep a bottle of tap water in the back seat just in case. I try to replace the water every week or so to keep it drinkable. 

I've only had to use my kit once or twice but it was invaluable! Sometimes you need a third or fourth change of clothing because your child has once again spit up or smeared pear sauce all over themselves and while you packed extra clothing, you still need more. Sometimes you think you packed the diapers but then you didn't or you didn't pack enough.   Those are the times that the kit comes in handy. What do you keep in yours?