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I'm looking to get some self-inflating mats for the family (2 adults and 2 children). The children have midi bags.

It might be a silly question but is there any point in getting smaller mats for the children or should I just get the normal size so that they can still use them when they get older?

The mats will be going in a Vango Icarus 500.

I know you can get 3/4 sized mats for mountain camping but I don't think I've seen small mats made just for kids. I don't think there would be much advantage in getting small ones though...the standard mat width for adults is 50cm, which isn't that wide anyway, and length is not usually a problem when fitting a mat into a pod.

The only comment I can usefully add about buying mats for kids is that they seem to do perfectly well on basic self inflating mats which are about 15-20mm thick, whereas adults tend to do better on slightly thicker (and more expensive, alas) mats.

Yup to what Val says. And you'd probably find it more expensive to get lightweight 3/4 length mats than a more bog standard full length mat.. You get a smaller packed weight and size, but that is of no consequence really when car camping.

And IME kids will sleep on pretty much anything anyway, we use a couple of 2.5cm self inflating Sunncamp mats (were abiut £15 each IIRC) for the kids, but have on occasions used a closed cell foam mat nd they don't seem to ahve noticed.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I've decided just to go for the full-length mats.