Best backpacks for daycare

STATE Bags Kane Kids Mini Backpack

STATE's smallest Kane is built for the nursery and pre-K years, sized to hold a change of clothes and a lunch without swallowing a two-year-old. The shell and the lining are both recycled polyester, and two elastic side pockets take bottles up to 2.7 inches across. It is by some distance the most expensive pack in this comparison, and STATE only asks you to spot clean it with a damp cloth, so a daycare stain is a scrub rather than a wash cycle.

Itzy Ritzy Itzy Bitzy Bag Toddler Backpack

The Itzy Bitzy Bag starts younger than almost anything else here, which is what makes it a genuine infant-room-to-preschool pack rather than a preschool one. The cotton canvas exterior gives it a softer, less sporty look than the polyester packs, and the side pockets are sized for sippy cups as well as water bottles. Straps extend to 23 inches so it keeps fitting as a toddler grows. Itzy Ritzy asks for spot cleaning with a damp cloth.

Wildkin 12 Inch Kids Backpack

Wildkin's smallest size is the cheapest way into a real preschool backpack, and the design difference that matters most at daycare is the insulated front compartment, which Wildkin describes as easy to clean and food safe for a lunch or a snack. It is cut for the youngest end of the range, so a four-year-old will outgrow it. The patterns are loud and coordinate with Wildkin nap mats and lunch bags, which is either the appeal or the problem depending on your taste.

Simple Modern Fletcher Kids' Backpack (12L)

The Fletcher is the most school-ready pack in this group at the preschool size, with a chest strap, a name tag, a padded tablet sleeve and two expandable bottle sleeves. Simple Modern aims it squarely at three to five year olds, so it covers the last daycare year and then keeps going into kindergarten. Simple Modern is unusually explicit that it must not go in the washing machine: wipe it with water and let it air dry.

Stephen Joseph Sidekick Backpack

The Sidekick is the classic appliqued character backpack, and Stephen Joseph discounts it heavily and often, which makes it the value pick for a child who wants one specific animal on their bag. It has two mesh side pockets for bottles, cushioned adjustable straps, and the option to add initials or a name. At roughly four inches deep it is the shallowest pack here, so a bulky nap blanket is a squeeze.

Herschel Heritage Kids Backpack

The Heritage Kids is the grown-up looking option, and at 20 litres it is the roomiest pack in this comparison, which is why it stretches from preschool into early grade school. The details that earn their keep at daycare are a removable sternum strap, an external name label and a wipeable liner on the front, bottom and side panels. Herschel prints no care instruction on the product page, so cleaning it is a wipe-down rather than a known wash cycle.

JanSport Half Pint Mini Backpack

The Half Pint is not sold as a kids' backpack at all, which is exactly why parents keep buying it for daycare: a plain, cheap, seven-ounce mini pack with JanSport's lifetime warranty behind it. There is one main compartment and a front utility pocket, and nothing else to break. The catch is that JanSport publishes no age guidance for it and the Half Pint has no side pockets, so a water bottle has to travel inside with everything else.

BEIS The Kids Backpack

BEIS built this one for travel, with a trolley sleeve, a removable front fanny pack, a safety whistle on the strap and a name tag inside, and it doubles as a roomy daycare bag at 12 litres. The nylon body reads more like adult luggage than a character backpack, which suits a child who has decided they are past cartoons. BEIS gives it no age rating, and at nearly 15 inches tall it is too much bag for most two-year-olds.

Bentgo Kids Backpack

Bentgo makes children's lunch boxes first, and the backpack is designed around one: a sturdy built-in loop carries a lunch bag on the outside so it does not crush what is packed inside. The fabric is water resistant and wipes clean after spills, and there is a chest strap and a padded interior sleeve. Bentgo aims it at ages four and up, so it is a late-daycare or kindergarten pack rather than a toddler one.

L.L.Bean Junior Original Book Pack, 17L

L.L.Bean's Junior Original is the plain, durable, warranty-backed choice: weatherproof nylon in a 17 litre size that will outlast the last daycare year and carry on through elementary school. It has a water bottle pocket and the same construction as the adult Original Book Pack that has been sold for decades. L.L.Bean designs it for ages four and up, so it is the wrong shape for a toddler room but a sensible buy if you want one bag to last.