What's Actually in My Diaper Bag

My kids are not school age yet, but it is our spring break week from other activities and we are enjoying an incredibly beautiful "false spring" as we call it in the northwest. Rain is expected this weekend, but we've had 3 straight days of gardening, water table play, and kids covered in mud, refusing to come in for dinner after hours straight outside. I am loving every minute of it. So, while the kids played, I restocked my car and my diaper bag and I thought I would share what's inside!

This changes depending on the kids ages and I'm really happy to be in a stage where I'm not bringing tons of clothes, burp cloths, and carrying my big bag with me at every moment. Right now, I get to leave most things in the car and just come back for diaper changes in between errands. Which means I get to carry a purse again. A milestone I really like, but even still

Here's what I keep in my diaper bag (and car) as a crunchy mom with a 3 year-old and a 17-month old!

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Diapers

We rotate between two, depending on the day.

For disposables, we use Pura diapers. They are chlorine-free, OEKO-TEX certified, organic cotton on/'the parts that touch baby's skin, and made in the EU (where standards are stricter). As far as disposables go, they are about as good as it gets.

For cloth, we use Cloth-eez organic cotton flats from Green Mountain Diapers with a waterproof diaper cover. I recommend Thirsties. Organic cotton flats are one layer of fabric: super simple, fast drying, and very easy to wash clean. You fold them and lay them inside the cover. I like Thirsties because their PFAS contamination testing has been better than most other brands I've looked into. PFAS in diaper covers is a real issue worth paying attention to.

Wipes

WaterWipes. 99.9% water, a drop of grapefruit extract, nothing else. There are trace preservatives in the grapefruit extract the gets in during processing. For me, this is something I don't worry about while I'm out and I just try to use cloth diapers and wipes when I can. But when we use disposable diapers, we use these wipes. Honest sells dry wipes so you just add your own water and the need for preservatives is avoided if that works for you!

Wet Bag

A Thirsties wet bag, always. It holds used cloth diapers, wet clothes, muddy shoes, whatever needs to be contained. The whole thing goes in the wash when we get home. Thirsties wet bags are PUL lined — not the best material in the world, but Thirsties has done more independent testing on PFAS than most brands and fares better. It's the tradeoff I've made here. The bag is also just genuinely well made and has lasted us years.

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Active Skin Repair Spray

Active Skin Repair Kids Spray does everything. Diaper rash, scrapes, eczema. The active ingredient is hypochlorous acid, which is a molecule your own white blood cells produce naturally. No alcohol, no antibiotics, no sting, totally non-toxic. It works fast and I use it instead of hand sanitizer too! It kills norovirus which alcohol-based sanitizer can't even do!

Changing Pad

Most of the time I just use an extra cloth diaper flat or the quilt I keep folded in the back of the car. Flat diapers are large, soft, washable, and free if you already have them.

I do have a Gathre mat and I use it, but I'm not sure I'd buy it again if I were starting over. All the mats marketed as "leather" are faux or vegan leather (PU). Gathre is the closest thing: they use bonded leather, which contains real leather fibers bonded with a binder. It's more natural than straight PU "leather", and Gathre has done more transparency around their materials and PFAS testing than most brands. But it's still synthetic materials. If you have your heart set on a wipeable changing mat, Gathre is the one I'd point you to. Otherwise, a flat diaper does the job, costs nothing extra, and goes right in the wash.

Potty

Ok so this doesn't go in the diaper bag, but it is a must in my car. I don't know if it's just my area, but there are a lot of places we go without public restrooms and I prefer not to be caught without. Plus sometimes it is just more convenient than braving a public bathroom with my two toddlers if I don't have to, especially when potty training and bathroom visits are frequent.

Extra Clothes

I keep a full change of clothes for each kid for obvious reasons.

For brands, we look for GOTS certified organic cotton or OEKO-TEX certified natural fibers. A few that make this easy and accessible:

• Hanna Andersson — pricier, but the quality is real and they hold up beautifully for hand-me-downs
• Carter's Little Planet — Carter's organic cotton line, widely available and affordable
• Burt's Bees Baby — GOTS certified, good range of sizes, goes on sale on Amazon regularly
• Regular Carter's and Gap also carry 100% cotton and some GOTS and OEKO-TEX options. you just have to check the labels or online descriptions carefully.

Check out my full blog post on how to achieve a natural fibers kids wardrobe.

Snacks

We don't buy a lot of pre-packaged food, but we eat out basically never, so if we are out and running late for lunch, I try never to be caught without a few reasonable snacks in the car for the kids. We get all of these from Costco.

Archer beef sticks — the smaller half-size ones are perfect for little hands. Simple ingredients, no nitrates, no junk.

MadeGood granola minis — individually wrapped little pouches. Organic, gluten-free, nut-free, made in a dedicated nut-free facility. They make a good Costco run item and the single-serve pouches are perfect for a bag. I love these because they are organic which is important for oat-products due to the potential for glyphosate residue. Plus they are really yummy and we still aren't tired of them.

Applesauce pouches Costco has organic ones with applesauce grown in WA.

Lovebird cereal or Seven Sundays — for dry cereal snacking. Both are glyphosate-residue free. Lovebird is also grain-free if that's relevant for your family. I bring these when I drop my kids off at Bible Study Fellowship or anywhere the snack is something I'd prefer they didn't eat.

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Drinks

A Klean Kanteen 16oz pint cup with a straw lid that the kids and I share. I am too lazy to carry three water bottles. When the kids need their own water bottles, they use a Kids Klean Kanteen. We limit use partly because of the plastic straw lid; it's BPA-free polypropylene, which is one of the safer plastics, but still plastic. The cup itself is 18/8 stainless steel with no liner, which is what I care most about.

Plus, my coffee comes with me in an open mug from my kitchen. My husband doesn't appreciate the feeling of a warm mug in your hands the way I do especially when it's open, full of espresso and steamed milk in the car. It keeps me from stopping for a latte in a cup lined with PFAS though, so for now I have selective hearing about this.

What We Don't Bring

Toys. We keep a couple of light-up toy phones in the car that stay in the car and don't come in the house. Mostly the kids look out the window and talk to each other. Or yell at each other to stop talking... but I feel like for the most part activities and toys in the car can create more problems than they solve.

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