Some suggestions; "tips" implies something from experience, and that I do not have. Realize, too, that so much of this is situation-specific, climate-specific, number and ages and capabilities of children-specific. Everybody has, in their mind's eye, some specific circumstances they're thinking of; problem is, nobody else is privy to that mental view.

So take these as a couple of things to help you think about it:

1. Once you're a refugee, you hugely complicate your survival problems. Children make it even more difficult. Try to avoid this. Bug in if you can, or find a place to hole up.

2. Have for each child capable of carrying one an age-appropriate backpack w/ extra clothing, toy, morale booster, flashlight, some water, etc. You may have to bug out and having a BOB, abbreviated though it may be, for each child is important.

 

Keep them in mind as you assemble your preps. I stock some things you wouldn't normally see in a persons preps. I buy packs of cheap computer paper and assorted stationary. With no electricity and probably unable to go outside, they need something to occupy thier time. Lots of childrens OTC medication. I also buy extra shoes, coats, and clothing at yard sales. Always have plenty of extra blankets. Putting away some comfort food isn't a bad idea either. For my kids, that's chocolate, Koolaid, hard candy, brownie and cake mixes, and a few cases of canned soda, mostly ginger ale.
As far as surviving with kids in general, time is the key. Children want and need attention, not toys. I make sure to how a couple outings a week just for them. The library, pet store, or taking a hike are thier favorites. Discipline. Firmily, fairly, and with love. Kids want bounderies, they just don't know it.

 

One thing you can do now while there is time is to teach your children how to eat. Picky eaters are raised not born. If you get in a situation where you are trying to work through a disaster, the last thing you need to have to worry about is if you have an adequate stock of "Super Crunchy Fruity Oaty Cereal with Candy Lumps" because that's the only thing the little darlings will eat for breakfast. Introduce them slowly (if they don't already eat regular food) to different foods. Oatmeal, beans, vegetables, etc. need to be part of their diets now if you expect to be able to get them to eat when there's a problem. In the midst of a disaster when tension is high, kids and the elderly will sometimes refuse to eat if it's not just what they are used to. So get them used to it now. It's not bad parenting to teach your kids to eat oatmeal or beans.

Your children may already eat a balanced diet and not be tiny prima dona's at the table, if so that is WONDERFUL. You are doing them a lifetime service. If not, then work on it so they will have better health and be better able to survive if the "Fruity Oatey O's" aren't in stock some day.

 

Thanks for the laugh. And the post
You might eat Kagogi, I wouldn't if there was something else.
I am a "picky" eater, because I don't like many foods. But I have eaten many things because I was trying to "please" and because there was nothing else. But my choice of foods I like is "limited". The choice to eat is "higher"

 

In general Jim and Jack.

Homemade blackberry, grape, elderberry, water-mellon, peach etc... in a SHTF situation :

 

These are some of the things I've done with my 3 young and beautiful children. Just my way, may not be for everyone as every parent is different.
- I got my wife involved in assembling our bob. Her input as a mother brought up things I wouldn't have thought of.
- I try to teach them the importance of living a humble and non wasteful lifestyle. How precious everyday is and not to waste the precious resources that we are so lucky to have.
- I teach them all the skills that I know, from gardening to survival skills to martial arts and everywhere in between. This is all important knowledge that is quickly becoming lost. So far, they have taught me more than I could ever teach them.
- I do not lie to them. Ever. Not about Santa, life, or the sometimes cruelty of nature.

These are a few of the things I've done, but I'm still learning as I go also.

 

How about clothing? Kids can grow at a staggering rate. If you're looking at a TEOTWAWKI situation and you have a child, what is your kid going to wear in 6 months, a year, or 2 years -- heck, if it's really bad, 5 years from now? The "caveman chic" of animal hides could be due for a fashion comeback.

Food is another issue, especially if you have or will soon have teenage boys. They eat a lot more than adults.

 

I myself have a 17 girl and custody of my ex wife's 2 year old girl (not the father)
my 17 year old gre up on many a military base during my 20 year service so she is had several trainning thru her years
the 2 year old well thats another
she has her own BOB loaded up with paper crayons youth sleeping bag an clothes (dipers we carry)
every month we do a "hiking" walk around the neiborhood with her and her BOB
so far so good untill she sees the playground then thats the end

only thing i can say is to do trainning and update the BOB and gear as they grow

 

Very important is to teach them basic protocols for various mishaps and practice them. Such as, what do you do when we get seperated? What do you do if I don't come back for an unusually long period of time? What do you do if we meet a hostile person? What do you do if daddy gets in a fight with someone? What do you do if the house is on fire? How do you work a flashlight? How do you work a cell phone? How do you behave around guns? What is okay and not okay to eat? etc.

Also, start your kids off with how to defend themselves against larger threats. Obviously you don't want to give your 6 year old a gun, but do you think your 6 year old can handle pepper spray?

Extra questions for you too: Do you camo your kids while fleeing through the wilderness? How do you balance you being able to stay with your kids with your need to not have you or your child detected by someone you don't want them to be detected by?

 

...Extra questions for you too: Do you camo your kids while fleeing through the wilderness? How do you balance you being able to stay with your kids with your need to not have you or your child detected by someone you don't want them to be detected by?

Let's see, you have a area picked out that you meet up at if something separates you. And a back up point as well. You flee only if you have too, and not worry about camo. Just get the "flip" out of dodge. Make sure everyone is trained enough to fight alone if they can and to not say much if captured. I could see myself doing what needs to be done, hopefully some here can to.
Situation dictates.

 

i have 2 kids 4 + 8... we do nature hikes, and kids move slow.
My bob contains what they need, I do not expect them to carry much.
After a few miles and they are dragging. Your rate of travel would be limited.

 

I'd recommend bugging in, or somewhere near by so if travel by foot is needed you can be there in about a day.

Also if you have an Ex at least try to be on good speaking terms with them. In the event of something horrible happening my non prepared ex wife and son are welcome in our home.

If she has to come along for me to save my son so be it.

 

Teach them to plant a garden. My 4 yr old great grandaughter loved eating the green beans and veggies she helped plant and tend to. Go to the thrift store and get books to teach them skills replacing the fairytale life they may think exists. Get them a little hammer and nails that will keep them busy for some time but supervise. Show them how to sew a button on or mend a rip. Surprisingly a lot of kids like to learn what they think are adult tasks. Also get each one a whistle to wear when out and let them know what to do in case of emergency. There are so many life skills that we can teach them at a young age. Show them how to wash a piece of clothing by hand and put outside to dry. I raised 6, 5 of them boys and each one knows how to cook,clean and do laundry. The other skills they learned fom their dad. With patience you will do fine.

 

I got the whole family involved when we packed our BOB's. I think that's key.

I have a young daughter, so I took her to the 99 cent store and told her she could pick out 10 things to pack in her bag. She had a blast picking out coloring books and crayons yo yo's ect. Now she asks me when we are going to bail out so she can play with them.

 

I will attest that young people do not move like their elders. I learned this working with young scouts. They can do it, but not well and and not fast. If you ar talking about children younger than 13 or 14, you should seriously consider bugging in.

If you bug in, they will get bored quickly without electronics. Learned this in 2 weeks without power after Ike. Keep board games, books, cards, etc. for that eventuality. The best thing you can do ( after teaching them to eat with versatility) is to teach them to love reading and keep a lot of books. Books can be good barter items, too. They were in the Old West.

 

Some good-great posts. Thanks for all the ideas and comments.
So some say hunker down if they are young. Like under 10. And in some situations bug out.
So should we prep some things like a teddy bear or something, if we Bug Out and meet up with a kid?

 

i have a few small toys like hotwheels and a coloring book and small box of crayons in my BOB :thumb:

 

board games are always good... the Wife and i like to play Uno
like others have said stationary products are great as well
i also have a kindle fire loaded with kids movies and a portable DVD player i can charge off my solar panels if need be and books... lots of kids books
coloring books and crayons .. remember a bored kid will drive your stress up more than it already is .. and the last thing you need in any survival situation is unneeded stress

also when stocking first aid supplies for the family i stock baby Tylenol and children's chewable aspirin as well as baby wipes and diaper .. i think we have a years worth of diapers in all the different sizes
baby food like cereal is good cause you can repack it to last for years
process fruits and veggies with a food processor is a cheap easy way to turn food from your garden into baby food
again make sure you have a way to run your food processor like solar or a genny of some sort in case the power goes out

warm cloths and boots as well if your in cold climates fleece pants and tops are nice for around the house if you need to conserve heat

just some things i learned over the years ...

 

Warning - long post. I'm sure it's too long:

I have two, nearly 8 & 11 y/o. I'm no expert at this but I spend a lot of time thinking about it since my hubby is gone much of the time so I feel like it's all on me.

I prep for anything but our most likely scenarios would be
(1) regional wildfires that require evac to a hotel or to family,
(2) a weather event that leaves us bugging in yet without services.
(3) other, less likely scenarios (EMP nonsense or Chinese hacking our grid down.

BOB Purpose
The kids' BOBs are set up as a combo of "life is normal but we are at a hotel" AND "SHTF and we're possibly walking." Their BOBs are big and they would need help carrying them if walking but I'd rather start out with too much than too little. I know the kids' BOBs aren't tactical but I was aiming in their case for as much normalcy as possible.

BOB Contents
They have clean but gently used clothing from the thrift shop in larger sizes (a couple of t-shirts each, some knit pants, socks, underwear). Also some tennis shoes in one or two sizes up from where they are now. I watch for clearance shoes at Walmart or thrift shops. Just got little one some tennis shoes off of the $1 cart at WM that are a few sizes too big so those go in there.

They each have a book, some crayons/map colors, and a spiral. I will eventually put travel checkers in one and a deck of cards in the other. Each probably still has a stuffed animal since I made them two years ago. They each have a lovey pillow that is small but would be comforting. Each has a baby blanket to serve as extra warmth and comfort even though they are too big now. Each also has a backup flashlight, water purification, whistle, and I will be adding a first aid kit to each.

Family Med Kit
I set up our regular travel bag as a fully redundant first aid kit/medicine cabinet/personal care bag for all four family members. It's very big (backpack sized) but would be grabbed in a bug out. We also use it on every trip so it stays current and I am constantly tweaking what's in it.

Kid-specifically, that bag holds:
liquid Benadryl for reactions/stings/bites, liquid Tylenol for fevers, and Sambucus for antiviral/antiflu. Also a thermometer and spare battery. When they were younger it included saline nasal spray and a nasal syringe before they were old enough to blow their noses.

Mindset
I try to allow the kids to have their childhood and not lay my worries on them too much, but we talk lightly about current events (recent news of Chinese hacking for example). They are very into prepping along with me but think that I do it entirely because of power outages due to weather.

Food Storage
We recently got into couponing and they love building up a food stock. I've started putting it in terms of survival food for them recently. We got 40 jars of our regular peanut butter on clearance last week at Walmart and I said "Hey - we could live on that for a month if we had to! Peanut butter is the perfect survival food." I have put them in charge of organizing our "stock" as we call it and they love putting things away and seeing how much we have built up. I think all kids are secretly hoarders and so they appreciate the value of 40 jars of peanut butter just as a sort of collection. :

I have two celiac kids. We have to be VERY careful about food storage. I can't stock any wheat products. It is a constant concern with me that we would not be able to rely on emergency handouts or even last-minute stocking up, or eating at a restaurant during an evac, or having family members provide food. I am working hard to build up our food stocks and I keep an emergency food box with 3 days of gluten-free food at the ready.

On pickiness & kid food:
I have one who was very picky because the celiac disease had wrecked her eating patterns and caused vitamin deficiencies that made the pickiness worse (zinc deficiency can cause loss of taste, for example). She's recovering and getting less picky but that scares me still. I have started making her taste foods that she normally rejects even though it causes fights, simply because we won't be able to survive with a picky eater long-term. It's a gradual improvement but I won't let up until she will eat most of what we stock.

My kids actually eat dye-free, pretty preservative-free, as clean and organic as possible, but I balance SHTF concerns by stocking some less-than-ideal foods. In terms of kid-food, I stock hard candy, chocolate chips, sugar , dried fruit and nuts. When I find anything that is gluten-free kid food on sale, I stock up on it.

Because we can no longer eat out due to the celiac issues, we carry with us at all times water, Lara Bars, bananas, and trail mix. I am so pleased to see that they are learning to just fuel up on those things when we are out and I look at that as a big step towards a better survival attitude.

We just went away for the weekend to a hotel, and took every bit of our food for the three days. That may not sound like a big deal but it felt like a success. We had a Yeti and a microwave and survived on salami sandwiches, whole fruit, PB & J, and then the trail mix, chips, etc.

Skillsets
I'm still a novice gardener but I'm trying to transfer those skills. This year I hope to implement a weekly cook-out night where I learn to use the Dutch oven or we use the grill or other cook outdoors means. Basically I hope to teach them as much as I can before they leave home, like canning, sewing, first aid, etc.

Self-Defense
This is my current sore spot. We have guns and I don't know how to use them so this is the year I embrace guns as home defense. While I"m waiting for that to get going, I plan on buying the kids and myself slingshots and also doing archery practice - we all have bows. They think these things are fun and don't relate it to defending themselves so it's the perfect activity in my mind - non-threatening, but very useful in SHTF situation.

When finances permit, I would love for them to take a karate/self-defense class that is offered here in town. I took it in college and LOOOOOVED it. I need a refresher too.

In summary, I try to involve my kids in all of it while framing all of the activities as non-threateningly as I can while they are this young. As they get a little older I will allow more reality to slip in. I just have to be careful or I will turn into Linda Hamilton from T2 and be raising little John Connors and I'm trying to be more balanced than that.

 

I would say if you have a set of skills and your kids are young enough to learn or you feel they can learn I would start teaching them boy scouts, eagle scouts are good starters. when I was younger my dad would take me fishing and camping and all while doing this he was teaching me stuff that had been passed down through-out our family for generations on how to track game make herbal medicine out of local plant life stuff that my Native american ancestors did before the use of modern medicine. and every time I go to the woods or go camping I use those skills so that I have them fresh in my head and so that I can pass them down when my kids are ready to learn.

also if your kids have medical problems you could pack there medicine in both yours and your spouses packs so that if something happens you both have it and not just one of you.

 

Mr Jack,
I was in cub scouts. I don't recall much. But I do recall I made a bird feeder with a pine cone some PB, an bird seed and a little string. Guess that would be a good event to do with a child in survival. Also you might be able to lure in a squirrel and kill that for food.

 

Growing up camping as a kid taught me skills I use to this day - how to start a fire when it's cold and damp and dark out, how to find your way, even how to forage for edibles in the woods. For kids, I think camping is a great way to prepare them for any future bug-out situation.

For my son, who is only 3, playing out back, taking hikes to the lake, and gardening and three things that I do to introduce him to nature. As he gets older, there will be camping trips (even backyard camping) and we'll be building a rocket stove out back as well.

For preps, I buy clothes for him in all sizes, especially when I find nice ones at yard sales or thrift stores, and I have a rolling bag packed with the next-size-up, in case we ever have to evacuate. My food preps include many foods I know he likes (like spaghetti, mac n cheese, vienna sausages) as well as brownie mix, chocolate bars and instant pudding cups. I found that the gummy vitamins tend to dry out and get a little hard, so I only have 6 months of those on hand that I rotate out. Longer term, I have Flintstone chewables and emergenC, both of which have a much longer shelf life.

One of the best things, IMO you can do to prepare your child for the future is to raise them as strong and healthy as possible and to help them build naturally healthy immune systems - eating organically, getting lots of activity and avoiding immunizations are three things you can do as a parent to ensure your child's ability to deal with strife or whatever the future brings.