Sometime in late February my sister and brother-in-law will have a baby boy. This will be the first grandchild for my parents, and of course my younger sister and I are very excited to be aunts. It’s been non-stop chatter about cradles, strollers, and nursery themes for months now. My mom has been focusing on making baby clothes that I am convinced are too tiny to fit anything besides a Polly Pocket Doll. My dad has taken on the task of securing cabinets, padding corners, and plugging electrical outlets. My contribution as the coolest aunt-to-be has been updating their family disaster kit. In addition to supplies for two adults and two dogs we’ve added diapers in a variety of sizes, wipes, clothes, bottles, and baby formula.

 

Most new parents probably have some of these items packed in a diaper bag, but is that something you remembered to grab when heading to the basement during a tornado, or suddenly evacuating during a flash flood? Maybe yes, but often times the answer is no. And an infant without access to a fresh diaper can be an emergency of its own kind.

 

This year one of the many items available in the Red Cross Holiday Giving Catalog is an Infant Care Kit. It provides enough baby formula, diapers, and wipes to last four days, so when disaster strikes and the diaper bag gets left behind, families at shelters know their infants are taken care of. So as the holidays roll around and you reflect back on the events of 2011, consider giving a gift that can ease the worries of new parents staying in emergency shelters. 

Katie