Planning for your Baby's Needs During an Emergency

by Miriam Caldwell | More from this Blogger

If you have a baby in your family or are expecting one soon, you will need to make sure that you include their special needs in your emergency plans. The food and formula, which a baby requires, may be difficult to find in a shelter. They may not be included on the first relief trucks and so you will want to make sure that you have plenty of these supplies available to you.

You will want to provide for the feeding needs of your infant. If your baby is breastfed, then you will not have as much to worry about. It is still a good idea to have formula stored for your baby just in case something happens to you, and you are not able to breastfeed for any reason. If you are storing formula you may want to store formula that is ready to be consumed straight from the can. This will allow you to stretch the water supply that you have stored for your family. It will also add to the ease of caring for your child. If you do this you will want to purchase the single serving cans of ready-made formula because you may not have a means of refrigeration available to you. Be sure that you include several bottles and nipples. This is a time when the liner bottles are especially nice to use.

If your baby has started on baby food you will want to include the type and stage of food that your baby is eating. My children both switched to table food at nine months old. They just refused to eat baby food at this age. If you child is eating table food, you will want to include table food that they can eat. My children still didn't eat a large amount of meats, and had mostly fruits and vegetables until about a year. You may want to include the snacks that your baby is used to, such as biter biscuits or certain crackers and cookies.

You will want to make sure that you include a good supply of diapers and wipes in your emergency supplies. If you are unsure of the size which you will need at time you can stock size three or just make sure you always have an extra pack or two at home. Size three can be made to fit most babies and toddlers. I have seen mothers barely fit a size three onto size five babies in times of emergency. The diapers have still been able to complete the job.

You will also want to include any medication that your baby might need. These include infant Motrin and infant Tylenol. If you use gas drops on a regular basis, you will want to include these as well. You will need to make sure that you rotate these out so they do not expire.

If you have properly prepared for your baby, it should make the emergency that much easier to deal with. It should be fairly simple to gather these supplies and put them in an emergency diaper bag that will be ready to go at a moment's notice.

Learn more about Miriam Caldwell

Miriam is a SAHM mom of three children. She has a daughter who is seven, and two sons, four and two. She loves being a parent and spending time with her children.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger