At the infant stage, many providers request specific items be brought to day care. However, as a parent you are left wondering if another child is wearing your child’s diapers, if your child is being changed frequently enough, if the clothing you have sent is appropriate for the weather, along with other common questions good parents ponder about their child’s day away.

These questions can be answered by following one specific rule. Send a prepared, organized diaper bag to day care each day with your child. As a parent, knowing that you have packed weather appropriate clothing, plenty of diapers that you can count upon picking your child up from day care to ensure the amount of times your child is being changed throughout the day, plus the comfort of knowing that you have sent every item you think your child may need throughout the day helps ease anxiety about sending your child to day care.

At this young developmental stage, your child has needs and desires that they cannot tell you. So by sending a prepared diaper bag to day care everyday you help eliminate both stress on your child and yourself. As a seasoned parent, and experienced day care professional my advice is as follows:

1. Talk to your day care provider to find out what they request each child bring to day care. Be sure to understand your provider’s requests and prepare your child’s diaper bag accordingly.

2. Prepare an emergency pack to be left at day care for your child in case of an emergency or forgotten bag. Having this emergency pack at day care will eliminate any unnecessary trips home to get your child’s necessities. In this emergency pack you should pack 5 diapers, a small container of wipes, and one weather neutral outfit labeled with your child’s name. I suggest packing these emergency items in a gallon Ziploc bag labeled with your child’s name. It is the best idea to request this emergency pack back with the change of the season. This will allow you to see what has been used and re-pack an outfit that is sized to your growing child and more weather appropriate.

3. Send a diaper bag that is both prepared and practical. Make a list of the necessities your child will need during the day while they are at day care. For example, 6 diapers, wipes, bottles, formula, food and utensils (age appropriate), a healthy snack (if the provider requests), burp cloth/bib, and a weather appropriate change of clothing. (Some parents like to also send an emergency medicine pack including a thermometer, Tylenol, etc.) A second list can be made meant for outings outside of the day care. A rule to remember is that your child care provider does not have time to shuffle through a cluttered diaper bag, so sending an organized, well prepared bag with your child is both beneficial for your provider and your child.

Choosing a day care for your child can be both exciting and scary. Clearly understanding what you want and need for your child will help you tremendously. Preparing an organized, well prepared diaper bag that your child takes with them to day care each day can help eliminate stress and frustrations as a parent allowing you to enjoy your child’s day care experience.

Nothing.  That’s right, you packed nothing.  No delicious applesauce.  No cheese sticks.  No fish crackers.  You forgot to send an utmost delicious, visibly nutritious snack for your absolutely adorable extremely loveable baby!  An old saying goes, “it’s like stealing candy from a baby.”  The problem is, there was no candy to be stolen!  You plum forgot to send a snack with me to day care!

Now normally I wouldn’t complain all that much, in fact, I’d probably just cry until I got something remotely similar to what my friends were having.  However, this was not the first time that I was embarrassed to have such an unprepared diaper bag sent with me while you were away.  So I thought I’d write this letter with a bit of advice.

The obvious contents within a diaper bag are diapers and wipes.  Being the practical parents that you are, I am always clean and dry.  However, Joey’s mom packed A and D ointment in his bag.  When he got a bit of a rash, Miss Amy lathered up the A and D to make him feel better.  And boy did he!  He was running around pulling the books off the shelves in no time!  Personally, I’d like to have some diaper rash ointment in case I get a rash.

I’d love to have a change of clothes and it’s always nice to have an extra sweater just in case the weather changes.

Remember, when I was 12 months old and you forgot my binki so I had to chew on my sock?  How would you like to chew on your sock?  On that particular day, my teeth were hurting and I really needed some soothing rubber to chew on to sooth my gums.  For now on Mom and Dad, please pack me a tether or a pacifier, because socks really don’t taste good.

Gracie’s mom packs her this funny wiggly caterpillar that moves when you pull its string.  Michael has a cool mirror he likes to play with…. All I could find in my bag was an old, already used spoon and a plastic bag.  Trust me, these are neither fun nor safe for me to play with.  So please pack me a few extra toys to play with just in case we have to go to one of those not so fun, noisy adult places where you expect me to be quiet.  I can tell you this; I will no longer be sitting patiently in a grocery cart waiting for you to choose what type of peanut butter you’d like to have.  So take this as fair warning, bring extra toys to keep me occupied.

Michael’s parents who are overly protective, but extremely prepared organized an emergency bag that is kept in the pocket of his diaper bag.  In this emergency bag you will find: band aids, hand sanitizer, tissues, extra formula, baby Tylenol, feeding utensils, an extra sippy cup, a changing pad, she even packs a camera just incase something cute or memorable happens!

So Mom and Dad, as you can see, you really need to be more prepared in the future.  All of my friends parents have jumped on the organized bus of prepared diaper bags, I really feel as if you should jump on that bus too!