Message Forums

Hello All, back from our first trip this year yesterday, with a couple of burning questions, for those of you that have already 'solved' them.  to make it easyier i will post one question here, and the other on a separate post.

the truble we found is that our 17 month old daughter was being 'a handful' when it came to bedtime.  the first night we put her down at her usual bedtime but she just wouldn't go to sleep.  had this happend at home we would have just left her in her cot until she dropped off.  however, putting her to bed in a ready bed on one of the beds in our FC we didn't feel it was safe enough to leave her alone whilst still awake.

so the question is, has anyone managed to get round this, and if so what have you used?

thanks in advance for any answers.

No self-respecting toddler ever goes to bed at their normal bedtime on campsite, because they can hear all the other kids still out playing. Best idea is just to save yourself the stress of trying to settle a crying and furious  toddler for hours in the evening and let them stay up till they drop. They will settle into a campsite routine after a couple of nights on site, but it won't be one that includes early nights for them and peaceful adult only evenings.

On the plus side, a late night usually encourages late mornings.

thanks very much for your replies, i do like steer_2001's idea of putting some velcro at the bottom of the inner door - will have to mention that one.

 I Love Holidays, we dont think that the travel cot would fit between the seats, was one of the first options for next time we looked at.

Thanks for all the other replies, after the second night, we did let her stay up and run around until it was very late, and she did sleep well - only trouble is the Mrs and I missed out on an hour or two relax time before bed.  oh well not to worry though.

i took my kids for 1st time last yr, youngest was just 2 yrs, and i did same as suzan111, let her run about to tire herself out then layed with her for a bit till asleep.

after 1st night it got easier.

We used to have problems keeping our daughter confined to her TT bed at that age too. I didn't like using a readybad or travel cot inside the pod...the travel cot was unstable and she would climb around so much she was under, over and round the ready bed and half the time it ended up sideways into the canvas...which then leaked. We finally settled on a single duvet, folded in half. She was quite old enough to get herself in there when she felt cold and we had a fleece blanket handy for the odd leg left outside.

To confine her we used a folding mesh bed guard, one of the long bench cushions and tucked the edge of the pod curtains down well. (I can see myself doing this, even six years on, but not possible to describe! A few strategic tape ties sewn on to the bottom might help. More modern TT inners had continous zips on the curtains and I really did yearn for one of these at times.

Final tip, for use at 11pm on the first night when you're all knackered and no-one can sleep. Medi-Sed from the chemist. If you don't know this stuff, it's basically toddler paracetamol elixer, like Calpol, but has a mild antihistamine ingredient added. Great for itchy chicken pox but it aso has a very mild sedative effect. I'm not suggesting you feed your toddler bottles of it on camping trips but one spoonful on the first night just to knock the edge off her "wide awake" won't hurt. I used to use it any time my babies needed Calpol at sleep times anyway, just because of the useful sedative effect. It is safe for use from 3 months and there are different strengths by age. Check with the pharmacist.

They have changed the rules on medised - you not supposed to give it to under 6's and they won't sell it to you at pharmacy less you lie about it. Thankfully we stocked up before they changed the recommendations :D

Yeah you just have to kind of let them burn themselves out. What we did was all get into our pyjamas together and brush our teeth etc etc so they knew that we were all gettin ready for bed and its bed time and they not missing out on much. You can always get dressed again after if you manage to actually stay awake yourself after the joys of camping with small people.

I remember chasing a 12 month old round an awning rugby tackling them to the ground to give them a calming baby massage - he thought it was hysterical and just wound him up even more - gotta love kids!