Don't Forget The Kids

We spend a lot of time talking about solo or primarily adult survival but children are the primary reason for survival.

I've gathered a few links together and will add more of my own thoughts at the end.

First article is decent with a bit of humor.
Don't forget the kids!

Teenagers: Luckily you can use them as bait … NO, I am kidding (or am I fellow parents of teens?) Teens will grow up fast and step up in a SHTF event.

This one is a for short term.
Family Preparedness: How to Protect Your Infant Child

As avid outdoors’ enthusiasts, my husband and I are always toting our small child out on adventures. We hike, bike, rock climb, hunt, camp, and disappear into the wilderness every chance we get. When our son was seven months old, we planned a month-long rock climbing adventure in St. George, Utah, which required frequent drives and hikes deep into the desert wilderness.

Good link for the whole family! Many really good items to consider on this list.
Master Medical Supply List

Infant care items Baby bag Diapers Diaper safety pins Rubber pants Bottles & nipples Formula, formula mix & distilled water or milk & additives Infant vitamins & supplements Baby wipes Baby powder Baby oil Diaper rash ointment Blankets Pacifiers Thermometer (forehead or anal) Safety seat/carrier

Ok. Now for some of my own thoughts having raised an infant without electricity or running water.
I carried my water in gallon jugs, four to a side with the handles slid over a pole that I rested across my shoulders. My son was carried in an infant backpack. Potable water was gotten from a neighbor five miles away and laundry, bath and cleaning water was gotten from a creek two miles away.

Use cloth diapers. Stock up on safety pins, rubber pants, and cloth diapers. Have enough for a weeks worth of changes without being able to do wash. Infants need changed 10 to 15 times per day times seven days minimum! You'll want extra for spitting up, burp towels etc.

Breast feed if you can for as long as you can. This seriously cuts down on food you'll need to store. Grow butternut squash since it will store in a root cellar most of the winter. You cut it in half and bake it, mash it and feed. Its typically baby's first food anyway.

Clothing: onesies! one piece zippered sleepers and plenty of them.

I'll add more later.

An excellent and needed thread. I have kids, and I worry about how things will be for them if the SHTF.

Starred and Flagged.

I would recommend having a supply of antibiotics with a long use-by date if at all possible. And always remember that antibiotics are a last resort - give any fever 48 hours to clear before administering, and always complete the course if you start using them. I'd guess they'd be a valuable commodity which could be traded too.

I'll be hanging around this forum a lot - this is my first post here. I'm very interested in survivalism; both the practicalities and the philosophical ramifications of a SHTF scenario.


Thanks!

Continuing....
If you plan on staying where you are versus bugging out I'd suggest chickens and/or ducks (eggs, meat) and a pair of goats (one male, one female) of a good sturdy breed. The reason you need a pair is that without being bred the female will not be able to give milk. Many children who have issues with cow's milk are able to tolerate goats milk very well, and goats are renowned for making good use of whatever scrub, brush and grass is available. You may want to fence your garden off, though, or use tie-outs for your goats.

I fed my son baby cereal beginning at two weeks, although this is not recommended. He was a HUNGRY boy!
At two weeks old he could collapse an eight ounce plastic bottle! No kidding. Store up on baby food cereal, place the unopened boxes in a gallon zip lock bag and remove all the air. Store them in a plastic tote to keep rodents from accessing them. If you remove all the air from the ziplock bag chances are good that they won't get mealy, and will stay good for a few years.

Stock up on powdered milk and store it the same way. If possible stock up on several types of "just add water" powdered formula. You never know when a lactating mother will for one reason or another not be able to feed her infant formulas. Several types because it may be trial and error which one is well tolerated. With formula (and spare bottles/nipples) stored anyone can feed an infant.

More to come.

The good news of course, is that two adults (of opposite sex) are perfectly capable of making more children.

A tongue-in-cheek answer, but also a realistic one.

Of course, any plans of mine for me and/or my friends, would certainly take saving the kids into account (including saving their sanity)...don't forget the books folks.

I'd also recommend taking a familiar and beloved comforting item - especially for younger children.

Blanket, favorite stuffed toy, etc...

For older children, something like a coloring book and crayons are a simple, inexpensive and easily packable distraction for down time.

I have a 5 year old daughter and on the weekends i spend time with her in the wooded areas so if we had to head for the hills it would not be a shock she would be familiar with it.I am working on teaching her to use a .22 slingshot but her aim is awful but she tries.

She also is growing tomato plants in her window-sill so she also is becoming familiar with growing.i spend time with her so if the(SHTF)it wont be a culture shock

reply to post by SeenMyShare
Realty would demand that the breeders survive a catastrophic event,in order to re-propagate the species.

The young are expendable,the breeding pairs are not.

Reality is harsh.

Reality demands reason,not love,not faith.

Reason.

reply to post by chiponbothshoulders


While there is a certain amount of cold-blood sense to what you say I would also point out that to survive you must also have the will to. Parents seeing their children die most assuredly lose heart.

Survival is not always who is the strongest; heart and will have a great deal to do with that and should not be under estimated.

You'd be surprised at just how much privation the human body can endure, and still bounce back.

My strategy is to have a TON of kids, stair-stepping down like the Brady Bunch or Partridge family. This way, I have a number of proto-adults who are capable of assisting with the smaller children...yet who must themselves still obey the iron law of my command.

The problem is the nuclear family. 2 adults and two small kids is pretty much the maximum vulnerability.

I recommend mimicking the typical primate troop. Assert yourself as primary or Alpha male/female. You should choose a spouse or mate who will support your leadership of the troop, since in most primate organizations, the genders have overlapping but distinct dominance hierarchies.

Make sure your troop includes some peripheral males. These are the unattached males at the bottom of your dominance pyramids, the "pawns" of your chess set. For all the specialized ("higher") primates, the peripheral males perform all the dangerous jobs, from "active recon" to tasting questionable water supplies. In chimpanzee troops, when it is time to bed down for the night, the alpha male sends a couple of peripheral males to check out that copse of trees on the horizon, to see whether there are any leopards hiding there, or a pack of belligerent baboons or something.

Now, here's the REAL secret. How do you keep the peripheral males servile, and not mounting a coup? Easy, you hold the "bait," the young / nubile females who are potential breeding partners. The peripheral males will do ANY thing you say, if they think it holds even a slight chance of them having sex with a real live female.

The trick is, you don't let them actually achieve spawning. Because once they get some, you have no more hold over them. It is the promise of nookie that keeps them loyal; not the actuality. Remember how much trouble Don Corleone had once his daughter Connie actually married that puke Caro Rizzi. Infamita!

So, extend your family post-nuclear as quickly as possible. Use social networks that you hopefully established pre-SHTF; church, volunteer fire-department, library council, PTA, whatever.

PS be sure to invoke all the trappings of power that lie in our collective subconscious. Most of our leaders nowadays try to dress like businessmen. But post SHTF, you'll want to do the opposite. Whether it's the gang "colors" or the clan tartan, you'll need a badge of loyalty for all your button-men to carry, as a sign of both rank and membership.

.

Boinking away is what got us to this point in the first place.

I like boinking away just as much as the next guy or gal.....

A woman feeling the need to replace her lost kids is a good thing to have around.

Sex,being something we are (most,with few exceptions),all born with,makes procreation inescapable.

We need to boink more,we reproduce at extinction level already.

Stop judging your neighbor,it'll all work out.

Love thy neighbor's daughter,while coveting his wife........

Hehe.

reply to post by gallopinghordes
The breeding pair goes to one another for comfort when it loses something dear to them,and makes more to replace the lost ones.

...Unless loss is used as a weapon,or a tool...

....By whoever....

We have a real shortage of healthy relationships in this world,on many levels.

I could drone on about a lot of things,but I'm getting drunk,and won't make sense for much longer.....

reply to post by chiponbothshoulders

Without those I love I don't see the need nor have the desire to simply survive. I could endure nearly any hardship and live on the edge as long as I had a reason. Take away the reason and there goes the will.

Here's a link to another good blog about child care post SHTF.

Caring for Babies in TEOTWAWKI by A. & C. K.

After TEOTWAWKI, wet nurses might find themselves in high demand. When other, less prepared families go through their typically small supply of food reserves, supplying milk for babies could be useful for charity or barter. Teaching young mothers to nurse themselves when all the Wal-Mart’s are burned-out, or formula costs $4,200, will be a marketable skill.

Children are not expendable. If they die due to circumstances beyond our control, so be it. But we should expend as much effort as it takes to ensure their survival. JMHO

A rare video of SHTF child care.

Good point and I have thought about this too. Someone mentioned antibiotics and I agree, I would also add something like Tea Tree oil for skin infections should a child get cut and baby wipes to keep clean.

Moms and Dads, here is another good resource for you.

The Adams In Appalachia

Homemade baby formulas:

Slide down about 1/3 of the page. You're looking for a post by someone called Rancher. Good advice along with the recipes.

The Survival Monkey: How to make baby formula.

Here are some recipes for feeding older infants.

Last recipe in the first post is baby food brown rice.

WhenSHTF: SHTF type recipes.

Great to see all these resources stacking up. Thanks!

I'd speculate that if the SHTF it will be because the human race has denied its 'higher' nature. As a result, all this cold-blooded, live like the animals stuff will simply lead us into ceaseless tribal wars - we'll never build a new world if we're all trying to jive with Freud-based family systems.

The thing is, we all have base needs and instincts - but being human is about overcoming our most base instincts and develop culture, love and intellectualism. Sacrificing oneself for the good of another, one who isn't even known to us - that is perhaps the ultimate potential achievement of a human being, setting us apart as something more than simply animals with a well-developed neo-cortex.

Look after the kids - they'll prove to be a source of hope & joy - they will function as a seedbed for new ideas as society begins again. They'll be the ones who are still young enough to adapt most fundamentally to what's going on. Don't dismiss children as expendable, and don't dismiss them as weak-minded!

reply to post by FlyInTheOintment

You have a very good point. I have been reading survivalist
posts for years. I see the same old story, run to the hills and hide out.
I am not running for the hills and hide. I have pets and love them dearly.
I have stock piled food, ammo military gear. There is "NO WAY" in the
world. I would feed my pets, and watch some children starve to death.
I plan on using my survival skills, hunting, fishing and bring back the
food for the hungry ones. If some one is hostile toward me, They will be met
with deadly force.
In America we seen it time after time. 911 event, there were people their from
almost every state HELPING and GIVING.