What should be in an emergency kit for a baby?

A baby does not need a separate kit. They need a handful of additions to the household kit you already keep, sized to how long you want to cover. The list below is what the builder adds when you tell it there is a baby in the house.

The routine note is the item people skip and later wish they had not. One page with weight, any prescribed medicines and doses, the feeding routine and your GP or health visitor number means anyone who ends up caring for them has what they need. It is a note for another adult, not medical advice.

Nappies are the item that surprises people. Plan on roughly eight a day for a young baby and the numbers add up quickly, which matters mostly because of the space they take rather than the cost. Work out where the pack will live before you buy it.

Most UK households plan for 72 hours. If you want a shorter, more realistic starting point, 24 hours of baby supplies is still far better than none.

The scenario worth planning for is not dramatic. It is a power cut, or a notice to boil water, at the wrong time of day. If you bottle feed, ready-to-feed cartons of your usual formula need no clean water and no sterilising, which is precisely why they are worth keeping sealed in the kit even if you never normally use them.

Cold-water sterilising tablets work without a kettle or a socket. Tablets pack flat, so they suit a bag better than a tub does. If you breastfeed, most of this section may not apply to you at all, and the kit should reflect that rather than pad itself out.

Babies lose heat much faster than adults do, so warmth matters more in a cold house than almost anything else on the list. Keep a warm blanket in the kit rather than assuming you will grab one, and keep the spare clothes in the kit rather than in the wash rotation.

In an outage the practical move is to heat one room and stay in it. The power cut kit page covers how to do that for the whole household.

Most of it belongs with the home kit, because staying put covers the majority of UK disruptions. Nappies, wipes, clothes and a blanket are worth duplicating in the car if you drive regularly with the baby; a change of clothes in the boot has saved more journeys than any other single item.

If you are packing a grab bag, the baby items move to the front of it. A bag you cannot carry is not a grab bag, so the comfort item and the routine note earn their place before anything optional does.

Children, including very young ones, take their cue from the adults around them. A familiar toy, a familiar routine and a torch they are allowed to hold turns a power cut into something manageable. The full guide covers preparing with young children without worrying anyone.