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!

• Diapers
• Wipes
• Hand sanitizer and lotion
• Extra breast pads
• At least 1 maxi pad
• Dr Boudreux’s butt paste(like desitin, but works better IMHO)
• Infant tylenol
• Ibuprofen for mommy in case of headache
• Spare set of clothes for baby
• Spare pacifier if using one
• Small toy or rattle
• 2 receiving blankets
• Baby bottle (when they start solids they need water at that point)
• Bottled water
• Spare set of house keys and $20 in case of emergencies
• Extra set of clothes including bra and panties if you have a reflux baby
• As they get older and mobile you’ll want to add a travel sized first aid kit for boo boos
• The Camera with a fully charged battery is nice to have
• Bib

Some people may think this list is extreme and you don’t need all this stuff. I have seen some lists with just: diapers, wipers, sanitizer, bottle, blanket and nail clippers. I don’t see why you would need to clip your babies nails all the time but who knows maybe this person did. I mean it isn’t like we are packing away our baby safety monitors.

The diaper bag is a really nice accessory to have, especially for a guy. Guys normally don’t have purses so I guess you may call the diaper bag sort of a man purse. I mean, my lunchbag is sort of my man purse. It has a pocket in the front that I put things in that I want to be sure I bring home. Or I’ll put things in there at home that I may need throughout the day. I have to admit it is rather nice to have. I am pretty sure I will be using my diaper bag alot, especially because my wife and I are pretty active and we like to do stuff and I think that will just be compounded when our new baby arrives.

So to wrap this up, try to be prepared as much as you can because you never know what life is going to throw at you these days.