A guide to the complete nappy-change kit

When I’m popping out for short trips to the shops or a friend’s house, I generally favour a small emergency nappy-change kit in a make-up bag that I can keep in my handbag, but I’m well aware that the average nappy-wearer can get through three or four in quick succession when they want to, especially on the days when you only have one in your bag!

So I also keep a fully stocked nappy-change kit bag permanently placed in the back of the car, packed and ready with essentials for every eventuality, so at least I know I have it covered if my handbag-sized effort just isn’t going to be enough.

In my emergency nappy-change kit bag, I have:

* Nappies and wipes (obviously!)

* Nappy rash cream

* Change of clothes for both children

* Nappy bags for dirty nappies/dirty clothes/poop scooping!

* Children’s medicines, forehead strip thermometer and plasters

* Hats/gloves if needed

* Emergency entertainment such as books, colouring and anything else quiet and car-friendly, for just in case we break down or get stuck in motorway traffic!

However, since I don’t have cause to use the nappy-change kit bag very often, it’s easy to forget that a lot of the items in there have a limited life-span, and need refreshing once in a while.

I recently brought my bag into the house to replenish my supplies and found the following:

* Nappies were too small, and wipes had dried up

* Nappy cream had lost its lid when hit from the side by either the dog or the pushchair entering the boot at full force, and had become smeared over most of the inside of the bag

* Change of clothes for both children had both been grown out of sometime ago, such that my youngest would most likely fit into his sister’s spare clothes by now, but I’m not sure how well that would have gone down in practice

* Nappy bags for dirty nappies/dirty clothes/poop scooping! Still here, thankfully unused…

* Children’s medicines had run out – only empty, sticky sachets remained; forehead strip thermometer had never been out of the packaging, since I am the mother of two now and as such have graduated to testing foreheads with my lips until I can get to my trusty ear thermometer for a second opinion; and plasters were out of date, i.e. we are into princesses now, not monkeys.

* Hats/gloves were needed but not wanted, and I never once succeeded in keeping all three items on both children for longer than it took to lock the car behind us.

* Emergency entertainment such as books, colouring and anything else quiet and car-friendly, just in case we break down or get stuck in motorway traffic has largely (ok, entirely) been surpassed by the in-car DVD players that we bought immediately after we actually WERE stuck in motorway traffic for 5 hours, and found that the emergency entertainment we had packed just didn’t cut it. At all.

So, the nappy-change kit has had its spring clean – it’s no smaller than it was, because what we streamlined in terms of emergency entertainment, we made up for with two larger sets of emergency clothes. But at least if we are caught short now, my son won’t be dressed as his sister as they watch their DVDs.