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please help! we will be camping for the first time with a baby!  can you please advise the best way for her to sleep? will a travel cot be ok? will she be warm enough? don't want a blow up cot - complete waste of money, just wondering how other family campers did it?

lots of love CJ

We've used a standard travel cot inside the tent without any problems.  The potential problem will be the height of the cot versus the sloping side of the tent, but at least the cot is sturdy enough to help keep the tent up !  A Grobag style sleepsuit is ideal for a warm summer, or special baby-sized sleeping bags are available.

If I was getting a new travel cot the Samsonite Pop-up Bubble looks great and would be just the job in a tent.  Similar cots are available from Little Life, but they strike me as being a little over-engineered - you almost don't need a tent !

Once your daughter gets to about 18mths-2yrs, a Ready-Bed is a good option.  They are basically an airbed built into a fleece sleeping bag, so there is no chance of the two parting company.  However, my son has managed to wake up underneath the mattress a few times, so they are not 100% failsafe (he still slept like a log though !)

My greatest fear taking babies camping has been them crying at night and waking up the whole campsite.  Once they are sleeping soundly through the night, this shouldn't be a problem, but only you know your own baby !

Quote: Originally posted by carpman on 22/7/2007

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Hi ya we started camping when our youngest was a year old and we just put her in a normal travel cot with a fleecy sleepsuit (with arms) and a grobag with extra blankets (depending on the temperature at night). She is now 2 1/2 and is in a sleeping bag inside a readybed wrapped with a blanket, (fleesy pj's and bedsocks). .(we never had a problem with the cot touching the sides of the tent)  

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Hi CJ

I've done the same with my two - Travel Cot with Growbag (up to 2 yrs) and Readybed (2 years +).

We generally have EHU so have a small heater on low setting - and use Cellular/Fleece bankets as necessary on the kids.

With the fresh air - your little ones should get a good 12 hrs sleep.

Happy Camping

We took our son camping for the first time just after he turned 1, he is now 15 months.  We have  a standard graco travel cot, it fits fine in the tent.  He wears a long sleeved vest and 2 pairs of jammies/sleepsuits, a grobag and has a fleece blanket over him as well as under him and he's never been cold.  The travel cot has the advantage we can put him in it while we get the tent up/down.

I bottlefed my son but thankfully he was on cow's milk by the time we went, as I think it might be a pain sterilising and making up formula.  Steribottles and cartons of readymade would likely be the way to go.  If breastfeeding you won't have that problem though.

We also got our LO an all in one waterproof suit and a pair of wellies so he can rampage round outside the tent till his heart's content!

the lightness late at night is sometimes a problem, we find a big blanket pegged over the travel cot with clothes pegs helps.