I will begin this series with a review of the Skip Hop Duo Special Edition in Plum Sketch, which retails for $64 in the US. This is a great little bag and has become my daily one. My phone does not normally stick out like this, but I had to stick it up to show where it goes. I also keep my wallet in a front pocket for easy access when baby wearing and taking public transportation around NYC so I don’t need to fumble while fighting with a crowd to get through turnstiles. I love that Skip Hop includes a changing pad with ALL of their diaper bags. I’m a ditz and lost mine, so I need to order a replacement, so I don’t have one to include in the photos, but there’s a pocket on the back of the bag made just for it, so there’s no need to dig through the bag or take up precious space inside with it.
So this is what I would take with me on an 8 hour day out with a toddler:
- 2 diaper covers and 6 soakers in total (1 inside each cover and 4 spare).
- wet/dry bag
- disposable wipes
- 2 toys
- coconut oil
- baby lotion
- a swaddle (blankie)
- a sippy cup
- snacks (raisins and cheerios)
- lunch (sandwich)
- a board book
- a bib
- sunglasses
- my cell phone
- my wallet
- a small makeup bag
- pacifier
This bag has 2 interior pockets in the main compartment. Each will fit about 4 disposable diapers, but since I am a cloth user, I put my wipes and a board book in one and a swaddle and lotion in the other. Those flaps on the side are the pockets for bottles that you can access from the outside–I’ll get to those later.
After the pockets are packed, I put the wet/dry bag (packed with clean diapers) horizontally between them and the wall of the bag. This takes up about 1/3 of the height of the bag.
On top of the wet bag, I add the toys and a bib.
Lastly, I add the sandwich bag because toddlers do not like squished PB&J. There’s still about 1/3 of the bag that I can really pack up if I’d like and since I typically use this bag while baby wearing, I like that I can throw my toddler sized Tula on the top of everything when he wants to walk. I do use this bag with a stroller from time to time as well. Another great feature Skip Hop offers is those handy dandy loops to clip it on the stroller.
inside of the top pocket, I put a small make-up clutch, my sunglasses, a pacifier, and my coconut oil. It’s a pretty big pocket; I imagine you could fit lots of goodies in there for cloth like Snappis and a small spray bottle of cloth wipe solution.
The side pockets are insulated and when my son was younger they fit his 8oz bottles perfectly. Now that he is older, I use one for snacks and one for a straw bottle/sippy cup.
This bag has a great capacity for one child in cloth diapers, though I’m not sure how well it would hold up to 2 in cloth unless it’s just a short outing. They do make a double version, though.