Hello,
Me and my partner are experienced campers, but for the first time are taking our 2 year old son.
We are confident with everything else but can any members advise with the sleeping...He currently sleeps in a standard cot... We have a travel cot but that is small for him now.
What have other members used for sleeping when with a 2 year old?
Larger travel cot? Any help would be great as we are camping in August 2012.
Hello Darren. We started taking our youngest away when he was 18 months old. We sleep him on a self inflating mat next to us. For bedtime we always make sure he has lots of layers on with a fleecy all in one on top. He sleeps inside a junior sleeping bag. We use the Outwell one with the dinosaurs on it. Make sure you get a decent sleeping bag and not one you can spit peas through.
If it is really cold, we will take a hot water bottle and duvet cover for on top. These can easily be removed if kids become too warm.
------------- 2015 Trips
January - Red Squirrel
February - Red Squirrel
March - Gimme Shelter
April - Elie
May - Noah's Ark
May - Riverside, Skipton
May - Blair Castle
June - Braithwaite Bridges
July - The Star
July - Witches Craig
July - Scone
August - Highburn House
September - Gimme Shelter
We had sleeping bags that zipped together and our little one slept in the middle of us I felt better knowing she was safe rather than in another bedroom
------------- Visit Llandrindod Wells! Great scenery, walks, cycling, red kites. Ideal for exploring Mid Wales.
We camp with a 6mo and a 2yo. They both sleep on SIM's either side of us. Actually it works out to be one big family bed because we use woollen duvets instead of sleeping bags. It's great fun - they love it!
we have a 3 and a 1 year old and they have both camped with us since being weeks old. now there both on air beds with sleeping bags. our youngest wakes up more though coz she struggles to turn over but in general shes fine. if there small enough we ussed to use a moses basket with a foot muff as a sleeping bag. plus pj's and onesies. toilet in the tent is the best thing you will ever get if you havent got one for those 4am mummy i need a wee.
------------- March - Chester
May - Matlock
June - Newquay
July - TBC
TBH a travel cots is really quite bulky and not the most comfortable of things to sleep on. Best thing we found was the kampa airlock junior. It's an air bed with raised sides and it's great. Lasted us for 4 years and would have lasted longer if DD hadn't decided to use it to practice somersaults!
They stay up really well and stop the child rolling off.
Normal readybeds are quite rubbish and usually need inflating every night and the two we've had have lasted only a few nights.
Vango make really good sleeping bags for kids and a couple of companies make sleeping bags that expand with the length of the kid.
For DD, she has a normal sleeping bag and we just tied it up at her length so she couldn't slip down the bag. Means we'll have many years use out of the bag. I've always slept with her in my bedroom
I've been taking my DD camping on my own since she was a baby and she still loves it.
We found SIMs better than airbeds as they couldn't really roll 'off' them. Also they are much easier to walk on, rather than being tempted to trampoline on the airbeds!
One good idea given to us when we were concerned about them waking up and wandering was to make sure that the zips to the bedrooms were done up high enough out of their reach.
It has raised sides. Comes with a foot pump. Will last until about age 4. I bought mine second hand off ebay for £8. We`ve had lots of use both camping and staying at relatives.
Eldest had the travel cot (baby dan brand - longer than average) and it suited him until he was nearly 3 (and he's tall). I would never have been happy with him on an airbed at this age due to cold and potential for roll off. He had a 3/4 size SIM in his travel cot. Off the ground & toasty, plus we draped towels over it to shield some of the morning light and it had pockets for storage. Youngest never went in a cot and always slept with us so for camping we have SIMs and either duvets or we have a very large double sleeping bag that fits the 3 of us! Though the pilling of the inside poly fabric and the shiny outer does not endear me to it at all. It's nasty! We had a ready bed when my son was about 4 or 5 and it deflated a lot. Bag was thin too. He had a mummy style vango bag but was either too hot or constricted! What suits one child definitely doesn't suit the other - in my experience!