Message Forums

Hi there,

we have taken our son camping since i was pregnant! ;o)

may i suggest a inflatable bath babys hate showers we fill our water container up from the sinks with warm water and bath him in the tent still do now hes 3. perfect especially if you are lucky enough to get a warm day or evening.

then as for the milk again i still do this now as we dont use electric hook up so keeping milk is dodgy. We buy those premade cartons although now its the older kids stuff.ok i now its a little bit more expensive but not that much and if its only for a weekend,i just poured it into his bottles and popped it in a boiled cup of water simple.

then as the other reply said try your baby on tinned beans smash maybe some tinned veg smushed up with that buttery smash you can buy that way along with some cartons of that pureyed fruit you can buy the babys still getting its nutrition.

its all about making it simple and hassle free so you have the rest of the time to enjoy.

May i say though im not sure i myself would feel safe having a baby in its own bed even if right next to you id go for a larger bed and have it in the middle of mummy and daddy that way its toasty for everyone.

oh yes and take a stroller for when you put the tent up keep the baby in it with a juice bottle or somthing that way while your putting the tent up baby does not feel left out and can see you nothing worse than a scraeming baby whilst you and partner trying despearatly to get pitched up before dark.we invested in a bulit in tv and dvd player in car now most of the time hell switch between watching power rangers and helping daddy hammer.

my son was 3 in october and he loves it allready hes saying to his nursery freinds teachers anyone who will listen im going to our tent at easter lol.

kids love it

hope it helps if i think of anything else ill post it

regards and happy camping

x

recently went with my 18 month old  can strongly recommend

http://www.littletrekkers.co.uk/shop/index.php/flypage/3589/bbb3c3561386ad305c0cd62005c64026

as a cot.

fantastic  He loves it. 

light easy to errect and airy for sleeping outside when hot.

Hiya,

We went camping a few times with out then 9-13 month old son last year and it was fab. We took a travel cot and I bought one of the Vango baby nitestar sleeping bags. Big waste of money as he just crawled out of it, so I ended up using it as an extra layer below him. He slept in his grobag with a blanket on top and even in September when it was a bit nippy at night, he was toasty. Had a fleece all in one to put on in the mornings when he was up before the sun had time to warm the tent! This year, we're going to try a ready bed (suitable from about 18 months) that has bolster sides and a headboard. Got a Thomas the Tank Engine one for £25 (Amazon) and should last him till he's 4 or 5. Going to have a few practice runs in the garden first though so he gets used to it.

Also bought a basic Ikea high chair, the £12 ones that the legs come off so was easy to pack in the car and found this especially useful to 'restrain' him in whilst pitching the tent and packing up. A few raisins and toys on the tray kept him occupied so he didn't want to 'help' us with the tent.

We were lucky and some of the sites had a baby bath we could borrow, but where not available, I just used a spare washing up bowl, that slotted inside the other so didn't take up any more room in the car.

Can also recommend a CD player if you have a portable one or an EHU. Didn't take one the first time and was difficult to get him settled at night when he could hear all the campsite noise. Found playing his usual bedtime CD's made him settle in half the time.

Didn't find food a problem as he was breastfed and just ate whatever we were having. I used bottled water (the cheap stuff without a high mineral content) until he was 1, then we just used the stuff out of the campsite tap with no problems.

It was fun camping with a baby, and can't wait to go again this year.

Fuerte :-)

Quote: Originally posted by fuerteturtle on 23/2/2008

---

Also bought a basic Ikea high chair, the £12 ones that the legs come off so was easy to pack in the car and found this especially useful to 'restrain' him in whilst pitching the tent and packing up. A few raisins and toys on the tray kept him occupied so he didn't want to 'help' us with the tent.

---

Yup, was just going to recommend this also. It was an incredibly useful piece of kit up till our daughter was about three, and I wish I'd had it around for her older brothers. You might need a padded insert for a younger baby and you need to add reins to it too. It washes under the tap though...very useful.

As for travel cots, I had a Graeco Compact that fitted into our then current bedroom pods very easily, and took up significantly less space in the car. You can stuff one heck of a lot of bedding etc inside the centre of one of the folding ones, btw.

Baby Nitestars are grand for the under-ones, but big babies can grow out of them very rapidly, so don't expect it to last two years.

I used to give them baths in the washing up bowl when tiny, then after that I used the plastic box we carried the kitchen equipment in.

The samsonite pop up travel cots are fantastic. Get the larger one and it will last until they are about three.

Instead of a high chair we used a bumbo for feeding and it was invaluable.

What can I say that hasn't been said already??

We camped with our 1yr old twins last August (also have a 6yr old).  They weren't walking yet but in to everything and we found that one of clothes cases was perfect for a door guard to stop them escaping!  Also has little blow up beds with sides on but didn't work for ours - not good sleepers then.  They had vests, sleepsuits, socks, sleeping bags and a cardy over that - nice a toasty!  We took two travel highchairs (the ones that attach to a dinning chair and fold up into box shapes)  these were perfect for feed times and we just sat on the floor to feed them, but they could also be taken out with us in case we stopped at a restaurant anywhere.  We used the toy box for the bath outside protected by the wind break, and on the days in between - baby wiped them within an inch of their lives!!!  My 6yr old comes in the showers with me!

We have a prtable DVD player, my hubby taped some cbeebies programmes for them and this helped them to chill out at certain points of the day and helped with a bed time routine.  Obviously it wasn't on all day, so it was exciting when the TV came on! 

We're hoping to camp again this year, they'll be 2 this summer, hoping that the nights will be better.  Please don't feel self conscious if you little one has a bad night and cries people are very understanding with babies (or at least I found so), and we found that if you apologised in the morning people were even lovelier!!

I wish you luck, I think all kids love camping and it gives them a real sense of freedom.  We love going on the meets, the kids are really looked out for.  We're going on our first one with the twins in June so fingers crossed.

Happy camping! 

Zoe x