How’s that for a title? Obviously, there’s no such thing as the BEST bugout bag, but I wanted to make a topic talking about how I helped my kids come up with theirs, and what is in ours. Let’s build the best kids bugout bag for your family!

Some Definitions: What kind of preparedness bags are there?

There are lots of kinds of preparedness backpacks and many names for each. There are no hard definitions for any of these of course, as all of this is sort of made up, but here are a few terms you might hear when researching kids bugout bags:

Bugout Bag - Sometimes called a B.O.B. This is the general term for a bag you grab when running out of your house (no prep at all, just grab and sprint) designed to keep you alive for a few days and have the essentials.
Go-Bag - Same thing as a Bugout Bag, but with the slight difference of maybe being able to come home soon.
GHB or “Get Home Bag” - Usually kept in your car, or at work, it is designed to have enough to get you back home if you are stranded (think earthquake and you have to walk).
INCH Bag (“I’m Never Coming Home”) - Honestly, unless you are an elite soldier, this seems like fantasy to me. I don’t think anyone can live forever off a backpack without MAJOR skills. If you have those skills, you likely aren’t reading a blog from a suburban father.

No matter what you call it, none of these really applies to small kids. No 9 year old is gonna grab his backpack and head in to the woods, set up camp, and be good to go in a disaster. For us, a kids’ Go Bag (or bugout bag) is all about having something that we could grab in an emergency, that they (the kids) are familiar with, and will provide some comfort and help them carry some of their own stuff.

The hope, of course, is that my wife and I would be right with them, and most things in their bags would be redundant to ours. Or, if for some horrible reason the kids were separated from us, what is in their packs might help them, or an adult get to us.

The concept here is that you should have a pack, for each kid (even if that kid is very small) that is theirs, and stays packed and ready to go. We fudge that a little, and let them hike with them to get used to them, but we always repack them, and check them over after we are done. It has helped our kids to think about what they might need on a specific hike, and pack for that (usually by removing things).

I will use my son’s pack (the brown one). Note that both of these are pretty nice backpacks. You don’t need anything fancy at all, as long as it is comfortable. We chose slightly nicer packs because they were durable, but mostly comfortable. You can use a bookbag, school bag, or anything like that. The only thing I’ll caution is not to make it look too “military”. A regular hiking/daypack/book bag is the way to go. Kids aren’t going in to combat (at least I hope not!)

The models of the packs here are:

Gold colored one = my daughter’s REI Tarn 12 (12L)
Brown one = my son’s REI Hydro Link 10 (10L)

Any old pack will do. My daughter actually uses the same exact pack for her school bag in a different color. So it is comfortable for her and familiar, which is the name of the game here. For example, consider a classic JANSPORT. These are sort of the Toyota Camry of backpacks. EVERYONE had or has one of these, and they work really well. GREAT packs. But honestly, just go to AMAZON and search kids backpacks and there are more results than you could possibly imagine.

Backpacks from REI — Here’s a photo of a bunch of nice backpack choices at my local REI.

As far as I am concerned, there’s no bad color you cannot choose. It doesn’t need to be army green, or tactical black or anything like that. Just get something your child can carry, and pack one of these as soon as they are able to carry a pack at all (2-3 years old). Even if all it has is a stuffed animal and some snacks!

You will notice that bag is plenty full, so let’s take a look at its exploded contents, and use that as a guide for what you might need in a kids’ Go Bag!

Let’s start with a List, and then elaborate on each part.

Backpack Itself - Can be anything. The pack shown above is an REI 10L pack called a Link Hydro 10. These packs, because my kids are younger, are in the 10L to 12L range. They could likely be a little bigger, but resist the urge to overpack. If your child cannot carry the bag, this whole thing is silly.
Snacks - Anything shelf stable with some carbs and protein. Jerky can be good. Power bars. Even freeze dried foods can be great.
Extra plastic carabiners (those grey ones on the lower corners of the bag) - Great for clipping things like hats or jackets. We avoid the fancy metal climbing ones, because they add weight, and aren’t needed.
Lightweight gloves - We live in California, so it never really gets cold, so we have light ones. If you were in a snowy or wet place, choose something different.
Water Bottle AND a water bladder. That water bottle is a 16 oz Nalgene, and the bladder is a small hydro pack. Get one that fits your pack. The water bottle is much more important than the bladder. My kids really like hiking with a bladder, though, and so we let them have them in their bugout bags.
Real First Aid kit. I won’t go deep in to that in this topic, but read my thoughts on why to give your kid a real first aid kit!
Hat. Could be a sun hat, or a baseball hat, or whatever your kid likes wearing. The green one above is an InsectShield baseball hat. We chose that because it helps keep bugs off my son, and it is nondescript.
Sunscreen (ours is in the first aid kit, but you need it)
Chapstick or Lip Balm (also in FIrst AId kit)
Stuffed Animal or comfort items. I’ll talk more about this lower down, but this is vital. Even if your kids are maybe a little too old for a stuffie, having one can be a real comfort in an emergency. Holding a small bear to your face as you shelter in an unfamiliar place can be a game changer for a little child.
Bandana (we pack two each, because they are VERY useful and light weight). The ones you can see above are a basic black one and one from Insect Shield (like the hat)
Full set of clothes (that is in that vaccuum sealed pack on the left). Include MULTIPLE pairs of socks. Wool if you can. That pack contains some tan pants, a t-shirt, a fleece jacket, two pairs of underwear, and three pairs of socks, in multiple levels of padding and warmness.
Toothbrush, Floss and tooth care (in that sealed bag with the masks)
Covid/dust masks (ours are vacuum sealed to keep them fresh, and we seal them with the tooth stuff.
Good headlamp. You can pick what you want, but our favorite is the Pelican 2750C glow in the dark headlamp. Runs on normal AAA batteries, and really works well. Also make sure you have fresh batteries. Read my topic on Batteries as well.
Pen - the one in the picture is a pen I got from an airplane, but you could also consider a Sharpie (kids like the Short Sharpie Minis) as well.
Portawipes. These are little compressed towels that expand with a little water. They are a game changer, and save a ton of space. You can see these in the little tube in the photo. Check the price for Portawipes on Amazon. I’ll also say that these can be used as toilet paper in an emergency (which is usually when you need bugout bags anyway!)
Emergency blanket (one of those Mylar ones) or a small sleeping bag if you live in a colder place
Some way to wipe your kids’ butt (toilet paper or a Sh!t Kit (in that vaccuum sealed pack). The ones above come in a little kit in packs, and work great. Check the price for SHT KIT toilet kits on Amazon.
A small roll of DUCT TAPE. Every disaster requires duct tape. You can get small rolls of premade Duct Tape Rolls from SOL (Stay Alive Longer) on Amazon, but you can also just fold some up from a bigger roll.
Dust goggles (not necessary, but I added them because we worry about smoke from fires here in CA). I talk about this a little later, but kids goggles are hard to find. I went with THESE. They come in a two pack!
Earplugs! (super important to get kid sized earplugs. Disasters are loud). You cannot see in the photo, but we keep them in a little pill case (pictures lower down). Again, make sure you get kid size!
Whistle. Important when lost, or to signal danger. Many backpacks have them built in, but those usually suck. I really like the Fox40’s. VERY loud, and easy to use. They come in a ton of colors, and they come with a lanyard, which is nice as well. I like the ones with the little cushion where your teeth go.
Hand Warmers. We ski, and my kids love these. They aren’t really required, but they are a nice addition, and they weigh almost nothing. We like HotHands. Check those out.
Hand Sanitizer. We have the Purell Personals above, but use whatever you want here. After Covid and all, I assume everyone has their favorite sanitizer.
Pedialyte mix - Or some other sort of way to rehydrate and keep hydrated. THIS is the stuff in the packs above, but you can use whatever.
A Glow stick / Chem Lite. Very handy if you need to hand it on a pack to keep track of kids, or light something like a tent for a while without using up batteries. They are cheap, and excellent in disasters.
Hair ties and a comb/brush if you need it.
A trash bag (optional, but a good black trashbag has MANY uses.. Rain poncho, sleeping mat, bag to keep packs dry, you name it)
Kids Work Gloves. They are somehow not pictured here, but leather kids sized work gloves are great for a bugout bag. They help keep little hands safe over things like broken glass, thorns, bushes, or any other sort of sharp, disaster debris.
Water Filter. I don’t include them, because there’s very few places in CA we are likely to encounter fresh water, but THESE Sawyer ones are nice and light for the kids.
Emergency Contact card (maybe a couple copies) laminated, easy to clip on the outside of a pack. Should have pictures of you and your spouse with the kids, for easy identification. I don’t have a picture of this here, because… well… it has all our information on it. I will made up a fake Emergency Contact Card and showed how I laminated it in my post of How to Use a Laminator.
Money/Cash - This is debatable, but it isn’t the worst idea to stash 20, 40, or 60 dollars in your kids bugout bag. Things… ALL things will be expensive if there’s a disaster. And having a little more tucked away is not a bag plan.

Some of this stuff is self explanatory in a kids bugout bag. But let’s talk more deeply about a few of these things.

Clothes for a Kids Bugout Bag

Packing your kids’ bugout bag with a change of clothes is a no brainer. But HOW? For us, we found that the clothes filled the WHOLE bag if we stuffed them in ziploc baggies. And if we didn’t seal them, the worries was that the clothes would get wet somehow and wouldn’t be dry when needed. We landed on vacuum sealing the clothes. Vacuum sealing has several benefits:

Vacuum sealing clothes makes SUPER sure that none of the clothes get taken out of the bags. The vacuum sealed bags are clear, so you can see what’s in there. Take a look at the before and after here.

As you can hopefully see, this shrinks the clothes down a LOT, and makes them fully waterproof. You can see the socks at the top, a yellow t-shirt, the black thing with the stars on it is a bandana, the pants, and the two tone blue fleece jacket. You can also use a Ziploc baggie as well, of course. But I recommend keeping them bagged separately.

NOTE: I will write a whole topic on how to vacuum seal if you have never done it. But I haven’t written that yet. So I’ll link from here when I do.

The Stuffed Animal (very important)

In our house, my wife and I were petrified of having our kids become attached to an irreplaceable stuffed animal. So we introduced these fantastic “loveys” from a company called Angel Dear. They are basically really soft small minkie blankets with a little stuffed animal head in the corner. My son has a lion (called MaoMao, which translates to kitten in Mandarin) and my daughter has a fox, called Foxy. We actually have several of each, so if we ever lose one, disaster does not strike. We introduced them over time, and now there is a small herd of each type that floats around out house. However, there is a SPECIAL one of each in their kids bugout bags which is labeled as “Emergency MaoMao” and “Emergency Foxy”.

The logic here is that if the kids know there is already an approved stuffy, they are less likely to need to run around the house to find the special one under their bed or wherever, and we will better be able to flee a burning house, or whatever other disaster we are confronting.

We also vacuum sealed Foxy and MaoMao. Take a look below and Foxy being vacuum sealed and Emergency MaoMao.

It really doesn’t matter what the stuffed animal is, but the smaller the better. Carrying a huge stuffed bear is not gonna be awesome. I also strongly recommend you have one staged JUST in the bag, as opposed to trying to find the favorite at the last minute. But every parent knows that stuffed animals are a special thing for a kid. Choose wisely.

Other “Only in an Emergency” things for a kids Bugout Bag

Next let’s look at the next vacuum sealed “kit” in the packs above. I laid everything out (these are actually pictures of my daughter’s so you can see the addition of hair ties and a comb. My son doesn’t need a comb).

As you can (hopefully) see, everything condensed down nicely. The bottom pack has masks, toothbrush (I used those disposable ones, because they are light) and purell. My daughter’s pack also has hair ties and a comb in that one.

Let’s cover those goggles, shall we? Those were a bit of an optional choice. I am assuming that any disaster we are likely to encounter in California will involve particles in the air. Wildfire (smoke and debris), Earthquake (dust from buildings), or a storm of some sort. Most of the natural disasters we encounter require eye protection. So I added THESE goggles to the kit. It is a little tricky to find good kids safety goggles, mind you. Most of them are those terrible clear rubbery “Science” goggles. Those suck, because they are uncomfortable. So I went with the goggles you see above.

Also see the Pedialyte electrolyte drink mix. Dehydration is a real thing in disasters. You need a LOT of water when stressed, and little kids get dehydrated quickly. If you have to walk a long ways, or it is hot, it is very easy to imagine needing some electrolytes. Sure, you can throw in a Gatorade, but those Pedialytes are industrial. My whole goal with those is to keep my kids on their feet as long as possible before I have to carry them.

Where to keep the bugout bags?

One of the things everyone will tell you is to keep these bags packed, and ready to go by the front door at all times. That winds up being easier said than done. We used to try to hang them on hooks near the door, and they were frankly in the way and looked weird. Then we tried to stick them in the coat closet by the front door. You know the closet… the one with all the mismatched shoes all piled in there? That worked poorly, because the packs got banged around on the floor.

We have landed on the solution of using… SHOWER CURTAIN HANGERS. Check those out HERE and you can see that with cheap shower curtain hangers, you can hang packs on a regular closet rod. Works perfectly.

Some general “Rules” about bugout bags

Building a kids bugout bag is hardly a “set and forget” proposition. So here are some things to think about.

You need to keep the contents of the bag very fresh. Meaning, don’t leave stale beef jerky and clothes that no longer fit in the bag. At our house, we refresh at least seasonally, always on the kids birthday, and at Holiday time. But if you kid is outgrowing a pair of shoes, it is likely that the pants you have in that ziploc bag aren’t gonna fit either.
Your kids MUST help you with the bag. It does much less good if your kids have no idea what is in those bags. The whole point is ownership and agency. Make sure the kids know what is in there and know how to use it.
Knives. Some people put a Swiss Army knife in kids’ kits. We don’t (yet) because they aren’t quite ready, and knives can be MORE of a liability in a disaster if you aren’t careful. But if you have slightly older kids, by all means, add a knife.
Consider a way to make fire. I don’t believe kids need a firesteel or anything like that. Until they are teens, of course. My kids can both make fires on their own, but the likelihood of them needing to burn something (finding firewood, etc) and either my wife or I NOT being around is pretty low. So we left it out, as a safety thing.
Don’t be afraid to make changes. There’s no such thing as a “wrong” bugout bag for kids. Even if all it has is stale Cheerios and a stuffed animal, it is better than nothing. But you should optimize and work over time. You don’t have to listen to my advice either. Just make something that fits your kids.
Consider giving items for the bugout bag at birthdays or holidays. I have given my kids first aid items, lip balm, socks, and especially snacks. We put granola bars in their stockings and make sure they know they are for the bugout bags!
Even if YOU haven’t made a bugout bag, doesn’t mean you can’t make one with your kids. A lot of people get hung up on making the ultimate bugout bag for themselves, and they never get around to the kids. Making one for your kids is WAY easier, and WAY cheaper, and you should do it even if you haven’t made your own!

I hope some of this has given you things to think about! Please feel free to write me if you think of anything else I should be including.

Build the Best Kids’ Bugout Bag