How many baby diapers should I prepare for an emergency?
“I will carry as many diapers as possible, if I need to evacuate from my home.”
“I think it will be easy to find help for my baby!!”
“I will simply pick up diapers from an evacuation shelter!”
When you buy baby diapers, you might tend to get big boxes, because otherwise, you have to go diaper shopping all the time. A baby is already a full-fledged human, and babies have to pee about 10 times per day. You should prepare at least 3 days of diapers (10 diapers ✖️ 3 days = 30 diapers, for one baby) for your evacuation bag. For your mother’s daily bag, the one you always carry with you, you probably already have enough diapers to last a few hours, to help you get home in an emergency. For your emergency supply at home, you should prepare diapers for at least 2 weeks, and then expect to look for relief supplies beyond those two weeks.
Please keep in mind that immediately after a big disaster, very likely, nobody will come right away to rescue you.
How about baby wipes? You’ll be sorry to be without wipes, but it depends on your energy, whether or not it’s worth carrying heavy packs of wet wipes. I know wet wipes are incredibly convenient, and not just for changing diapers. I talked about surviving without toilet paper (see post #63), and about how we might need to use old cloth, make it wet, and then wipe the baby. Alternatively, you can simply wash or soak your baby’s bottom with water. Either way, we need water… but what if there’s a water outage…
Our ancestral moms, as well as the moms in some cultures even now, could feel the signs that their baby needed to pee or poo. So those babies did not need to wear diapers. Personally, I think these moms are miraculous! The mother holds the baby, and neither mother nor baby gets wet, even without a diaper. How often do these moms set their baby in the poo position? If I were them, I would keep the baby in the poo position all day long. Seriously though, going diaperless makes a lot of sense. The babies don’t get dirty; the pee and poo doesn’t get spread around their bottom. Plus, there’s no need to use a lot of wipes.
Check this site: godiaperfree
Maybe the best way in an emergency is to check the baby frequently, and encourage them to pee and poo often in an emergency toilet (see post #63). It might sound crazy, but if we don’t have enough diapers, then it makes sense to use the fewest possible diapers through the night, and then go entirely without diapers during the day.
Diapers in a compression bag
• Use a compression bag to set up diapers in your emergency evacuation bag.
Make an emergency diaper by yourself
• Method 1: Use a plastic bag and a bit of old cloth.
• Mehod 2: Use a big cloth, like this.
• Method 3: Use any string, plastic wrap and cloth.
Wash or soak baby’s bottom in water
• Option 1: Wash baby’s bottom while holding baby. Scoop up water with your hand, and wash.
If possible, use warm water.
• Option 2: Soak baby’s bottom in water and wash.
• Use sunlight to dry baby’s bottom, if you don’t have a towel or cloth.
I hope you can find a good-sized container and water, in an emergency.
Worst case scenario, you might need to use water from a river or lake to wash your baby’s bottom.
Baby is always cute! We want to protect baby from any problems. We must make baby the top priority, and do the best possible by baby, at all times.
See you next time.
Remember, “Protect your life by yourself” （自分の命は自分で守る). You need to survive first, and then you need your emergency supply. No matter how well you prepared your emergency supplies, if you die, then all of your preparations will have been for nothing. First and foremost, keep your health up all the time. Build your stamina so that if you need to, you can evacuate as quickly as possible. Stay healthy.