Incorporating babies into your preparedness plan, both current and future little bundles of joy, takes a significant amount of detailed planning. We have four incredibly intelligent and adorable grandchildren ranging in age from not-quite-here-yet to 17. Thoroughly reviewing their essential needs and developing a plan to meet those needs seemed a bit daunting at first. But as all veteran preppers know, failing to plan is planning to fail.
Once I had a categorized list of vital, secondary, and morale-boosting items, I breathed a massive sigh of relief and began working baby and youth preps into our weekly and monthly TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) purchasing and training objectives.
Coordinating your preparedness purchases with other parents of young children in your mutual assistance group will help keeps costs to a minimum. Don’t forget to pass down clothing which one child has outgrown and others will fit into in only a few short years.
Begin the prepping baby goals by placing the three biggies at the top of the list: food, clothing and shelter. Taking small steps toward preparing to survive a disaster with babies and young children will help you accomplish the most important steps first and help prevent an overwhelming sense of panicked angst.
I have likened the process of prepping for babies to going Christmas shopping for a large family. If your holiday list nearly rolls out of your hand and onto the floor like mine does, stress can occur quickly. By sorting the list by either family groups or by age, you can strike a name from a single group when each gift is purchased and then mark the entire group as finished.
Horses will likely once again become a vital mode of transportation during a power grid down or other type of long-term disaster. Relocating young children and pregnant women away from danger will go much more quickly in a saddle than on it would on foot.
Whittling down the list in an organized fashion makes it far more likely that you will be able to suppress the desire to run screaming into the snow and get nothing accomplished.
Shelter
Although planning a permanent, emergency, and even a bug-out shelter for the entire family or mutual assistance group also helps protect the baby or toddler from the elements, more should be done to better shelter the little ones.
Making sure a baby is both sheltered and mobile is extremely important. Imagine packing a baby on your hip for miles and miles if the family suddenly found itself on foot. Hiking through the woods with an infant in your arms would be no picnic either. Purchase a baby stroller and a baby wrap carrier so the baby can be pushed along a road or safely hung from your shoulders when traversing rugged terrain.
Purchase a lightweight and inexpensive umbrella stroller and backpack style carrier for use by current or future babies in your family to help keep the little ones mobile during a disaster.
These items can be picked up inexpensively at yard sales, online auction pages, and from secondhand stores. Even if you do not having a baby in the family or tribe — as I prefer to call mutual assistance groups — you could get the news that a loved one is expecting not long after the lights go out. The secondhand purchases of strollers, baby wraps and pack-and-plays (playpen/portable crib) would make excellent barter items during a long-term disaster.
Clothing
Keeping a growing baby in clothing during normal circumstances can mean continual trips to the shopping mall. Learning how to sew, both with a machine and by hand, will help keep babies and children in suitable clothing during a lengthy disaster. If the power grid fails, the country could be without power for up to three years. The amount of growth newborns and children up to the age of 12 experience during such a span is significant. Learning how to sew will also be useful when adult clothing needs mending as well.
Simple onesies and romper patterns can be traced from existing clothing, so only minimal purchases of new or gently used outfits in various sizes would be required. I have snagged enough shirts, pants, coats, socks, underwear, and footwear at end-of-the-season sales, church rummage sales, and yard sales to clothe all three of the still-growing grandchildren until they reach adulthood for less than $100 each.
Hand-me-downs, even if the children are multiple years a part in age, may come in quite handy. The children will grow into the clothes or the material and findings can be used to make or mend garments to fit their current size.
Unless you live in an expansive mansion or own multiple a pole barns, it would be virtually impossible to store enough diapers to keep the bottom of a single baby fresh for very long. Cloth diapers are a cheap and earth-friendly alternative to disposable diapers. Patterns for making the diapers and removable inserts are readily available without charge online.
Food
Nursing is often considered the healthiest way to feed babies, but not all mothers can successfully nurse, and not all mommies will survive a given disaster. Learn how to make your own baby food and stockpile the items necessary to make emergency baby formula just in case the babies who come into your family or tribe are not able to garner sustenance from their mothers. A baby routinely consumes up to 32 ounces of water mixed with formula per day.
Stocking up on enough baby formula to feed even a single infant would take massive amount of space. Learn how to make your formula just in case nursing is not an option.
Emergency Baby Formula Recipe
Ingredients
¼ cup non-instant powdered milk (or 1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons instant powdered milk)
1 1/2 cups boiled water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Directions
Thoroughly mix together the water and powdered milk.
Add the sugar and oil and mix thoroughly again.
Learn how to make your own diaper rash ointment and how to sterilize water for mixing with baby formula.
Diaper Rash Reliever
1. Coconut oil can be gently rubbed onto the rash and help soothe the baby’s discomfort.
2. A chamomile-based ointment will also help soothe and dry up diaper rash. Mix together 1/4 cup cornstarch with 2 tablespoons powdered chamomile flowers. Sprinkle the powdered mixture onto a baby’s bottom during each diaper change to prevent rash, or gently pat onto rash when one develops.
Baby 72-Hour Pack
- One 12-ounce can of powdered formula
- 100 ounces bottled water
- 2 bottles and nipples
- Cloth diapers with three inserts or a pack of disposable diapers (which will take up a lot more room)
- 2–3 packs of diaper wipes
- 1 container of diaper rash ointment or powder
- Clothing – 5 onesies, 5 sleepers, 5 pairs of socks and 3 bibs
- 2 swaddling blankets
- A small thermos to help keep mixed formula warm (It also serves as a body warmer when wrapped inside a swaddling blanket with the baby.)
- Disposable hand warmers
Teething salve, teething cookies, or teething ring (or all three) - 1 bottle infant Tylenol
- 1 bottle sunblock
- 2 pacifiers
- 1 nose/ear syringe
- Comfort item, such as a toy or pillow
- Extra pair of mittens and knit hat
- List of allergies, medical conditions or other important details that others in the family or group need to know in case mommy and daddy cannot share such important emergency information
- Extra pair of shoes if the baby is mobile