The survival kit for child depends on what you think you might need to survive. Think in terms of catagories first, then the individual items to provide that service. Shelter, Food, Water, First Aid, Sanitation. If you are a first time parent, then your daily carry diaper bag is probably so jammed with supplies, your child could live a week out of it!<br><br>Shelter: Here are are talking everything from tents, structures, clothing, outwear, raingear, and blankets. Blankets are a good universal size clothing and protection for infants. Children change size so fast that it is often difficult to keep clothes of the correct size in a survival kit. <br><br>Food: Adults can go 30 days without food. Infants and children do not have the reserves. Infants put up so much fuss after 2 hours between feedings, I could not imagine handling an infant for longer periods without food. Breast feeding is obviously the best for the child but then you need to provide sufficent water and food source to the mother. Formula is available in a variety of formats. Canned powered formula has a shelf life of about 1 year. It can be prepared in the field with water instantously. A quart sized can of powdered fomula will last a couple of days depending on the age of the infant. All you will need is a steady supply of water and a bottle to dispense. Cleaning the bottle becomes an issue. Use of bottle liners helps. Replaceable nipples can be used to delay the time between washings.<br><br>Water: Infants usually are drinking breast milk or formula and need water either to produce breast milk in the mother or to make formula. Quantity of water depends on the daily intake of the infant which varies greatly depending age and size. The rule of thumb is minimum 1 quart per person per day for SURVIVAL. In order to thrive, you need much more. <br><br>First Aid: Infant and Child first aid is basically the same as adult except that childrens bodies mask the severity of injuries. They seem to be handling the problem well and then crash suddenly. When they crash, they frequently die. Infant/Child first aid means treating minor injuries aggresively. Medications need to be dosed for infant/children. The most common problem with infants is airway. Make sure you have a bulb syringe to clear nasal and oral passages. Diareahea is the second biggy. Dehydration is difficult to treat in the field. Push fluids orally. Re-hydration in a hopsital setting includes IV theaphy. It also includes a special needle that punctures the shin bone and introduces fluid directly into the bone. This method allows higher volume of fluid to be introduced than IV's for infants because the veins are so small. Also treat for hypothermia. Keep the infant protected from extreme temperatures. <br><br>Sanitation: Disposable diapers are easy to buy, store and use. The drawback is they are a finite resource. Cloth diapers can be reused if washed. We used disposable diapers and tryied to keep a stash on hand. Unfortuneately you tend to always need more at the most inopportune times so stashes get raided. Additionally, disposalbes are sized so stashes that are not used, become unusable. I guess I would recommend to keep at least one container of diapers the next size up in your stash at all times plus one of the current size. When you graduate to the next size for daily use, pull the small size from the stash, and replace with the next larger size. I have limited knowledge of cloth diaper usage but they may offer a better long term solution for a survival kit. Obviously you would need to store either wipes or some other washing/cleaning system regardles of diaper choice. You will also need some sort of temporary storage solution for dirty diapers. We used to carry a few ziplocks to put dirty diapers and wipes in until we found a trash can. Cloth diapers would need a similar system until they could be cleaned.<br><br>Movement/Travel<br>The other big problem is infants/toddlers need to be carried. We had a backpack carrier that allowed the child to ride high and underneath was a storage area. We kept bottles, formula, diapers and wipes in the storage area. That helped eliminate the diaper bag. It also freed our hands to perform other tasks. The drawback is now you have to wear your survival daypack on your chest. It helps to balance the weight front and rear but makes your arms effectively shorter. Toys can be carried if they have a particular favorite but just about anything can be turned into a distraction for children under the age of 1.<br><br>My youngest is 5 so I have probably forgotten something about infant care. As your child ages, your diaper bag will change to include more comfort toys and snacks and less diapers, bottles and formula. They also will begin to be able to have their own pack to carry their supplies.<br><br>As your child ages, you can include survival thinking and training. You might be surprised at how much they can learn and use. Teach them their parents name, to ask for assistance from law enforcement or store employees if they get lost, teach them their phone number even if they cant dial.<br><br><br>
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