Hip sling, bum bags, waist packs–whatever you call the popular small bags that you wear around your middle, I love them. Fanny packs are my favorite kind of everyday bag, making it no surprise that it’s the kind of diaper bag I looked for when my first child arrived.
There are a few diaper-bag-style hip packs out there, but some seemed too expensive for being able to carry only the bare essentials. I wanted something that could double as my own purse and still hold a few baby necessities, like extra clothes and a bottle. After hunting around, I stumbled upon the Diaper Pack from Béis. While it looked a little bulky, I was excited that it had a little more room (and a better price tag) than other options, like the Kibou.
After more than a year of using it, I can confirm: This bag is everything I was hoping for.
Practical Pockets
The Diaper Pack has a large center pocket, with two exterior pockets. The front exterior pocket is oblong and zippered to hold diapers, and it fits three to four diapers comfortably. That front pocket also has a pass-through cutout to reach the wipes storage in the center pocket. It’s handy, but I usually just take out the wipes container. I find wipes to be a huge hassle on their own without some additional fabric between us.
The back exterior pocket is open-topped and is designed to hold the included changing pad. I don’t find that the changing pad fits into it perfectly after a year of my folding it; it’s more square than rectangular and sticks out the top, but it’s not annoying. If anything, it makes the pad a little easier to grab. While it might not be the most sanitary place to stow something, the open back pocket is where I’ll throw my phone or keys in a pinch.
Inside, the center section is much larger than your standard fanny pack. It has card slots on one side to hold three credit cards, a key hook, and a mesh pocket to stash those wipes. I usually don’t use the card holders, since my husband and I alternate using this diaper bag, so I throw my wallet inside.
That large center pocket makes it a bulkier bag, but that’s also what makes it so great for a diaper bag. It almost feels like a small backpack, but one I can access from the side or hip instead of having to pull it off my back every time my kid is thirsty.
Super Stash
Photograph: Beis
So many diaper hip packs can fit only wipes, diapers, and a changing pad—maybe your keys and a few credit cards, but nothing else. Those bags focus on having a super-slim profile and being truly designed for only diaper changes. I’ve tried one of these and felt it was just too small to really be useful. Even my husband (who keeps his wallet and keys in his pockets, so he doesn’t need room in the hip pack for his stuff) didn’t like how small those types of diaper bags tended to be.