Just checking the best way to make sure my precious darlings, who are six and four, will be warm enough on our first camping trip! We have a footprint, then a groundsheet, airbed and the children are then in their sleeping bags. How is best to make sure they stay warm? Is the best method to put a blanket under the airbed and a sheet on top or is there a more effective way? Sorry if it sounds a strange question but I'm learning all the time and hope in a years time, I too will be able to answer questions with the wonderful knowledge everybody shares on here, lol!!! Thanks xx
It is more important to insulate between the air bed and the ground. Heat is absorbed into the ground by conduction from the air bed, if you insulate the air bed from the ground then the air bed will maintain the same temperature as the air within the tent.
footprint
sewn in groundsheet
cheap roll up camping mat (foamy sort of thing)
airbed
fleecy underblanket
then sleeping bag, although this year they want their winter duvet's.
Always a hot water bottle.
Would rather take all this than other luxuries tbh.
Even something like newspaper under the airbeds will provided a layer of insulation.
Layers are the way to go, that way you can adjust dependign on the weather - I have fleecy blankets that can be put inside the sleeping bag when it is cold (yet easy to whip out if it gets too warm) and be put on top of the bag as an extra layer or just put at the foot/side of the bed so that they are in easy reach if needed at 2am.
I had the child who would throw her covers off, even though it was below freezing out. (not that we camped in that cold, but in the pram the covers would end up underneath because I got fed up with recovering her).
You know your own kids best - so go with how you feel.
We use an 'emergency shelter' that we bought from the pound shop. It's like the metallic blankets that you see marathon runners use after a race. Undo the seam and put it between the ground and your blanket and then the airbed.
We also have one for over the top of us if it gets cold but I wouldn't recommend that for children due to health & safety.
------------- "Yeah, I'll go camping as long as we have an Aerobed!"
2013
Planning to go to Holland for 2 weeks camping in August BUT the planning is giving me a headache!
I think due to the fact kids are burning energy all the time ours feel the cold less than we do. Carbohydrate seems to be the best way to keep ours warm - stoke up the boiler Good PJ's fleecy ones work well. No matter how good the blankets are the little wriggle bums always seem to get uncovered!
Thank you all so much for your replies, they are all very helpful. My two are like little radiators and on the coldest of nights when I am buried under many duvets and blankets, they have their arms and legs out of the covers! I will ensure we have lots of blankets etc, and the emergency shelter from Poundland which I have seen and thought looked really good! Very important to keep the little people snug and warm. Better to be too warm than cold! Thanks again xx
Do you know when we went camping when we were kids years ago we just used to sleep in a thin sleeping bag on a groundsheet - none of this foam mats, airbeds, fleece blankets stuff. I don't remember ever being cold. Must have been warmer in the 60's and 70's.
Quote: Originally posted by 89angela on 27/5/2012
Do you know when we went camping when we were kids years ago we just used to sleep in a thin sleeping bag on a groundsheet - none of this foam mats, airbeds, fleece blankets stuff. I don't remember ever being cold. Must have been warmer in the 60's and 70's.
We didn't need fridges or heaters either, and still don't.
Primark do fleecy PJ's which are great for keeping kids warm, my lad wore his when he went to scout camp in snowy February, he uses a really warm sleeping bag as well and complained he was too hot!
put the pound shop silver shelter under the ground sheet. Makes packing much easier and they are polythene so not really good for kids even under the air bed. The fleece onesies stops that cold back where pjs part company and the ones with feet makes it easier when they get up. No trying to serve brekkie have coffee and wrestle feet into slippers/shoes.
Fleece blankets also good for wrapping up in bathroom or a chair morning or evening. Wash easily.
As well as the fleecy underblanketover the airbed, we also put a cotton jersey fitted sheet over it. My little ones seemed to be warm enough in cotton pjs with a fleece onesie and fastened up in the sleeping bag with a liner in it. In fact, we had to wake the eldest (age 4)at 9am one morning (VERY unusual lol!) because he was so snug!
------------- May - Fron Farm, Mold
Jubilee weekend - The Wharf, Shropshire
August - Gate House Wood, Kent
I put one of those picnic rug type things under her airbed and also her self inflating mat, then she has a sheet on top - under her sleeping bag, decent pjs and a water bottle for the really cold nights!
I've just been outside to check on my two who are sleeping in the tent in the garden. Eldest is wrapped up in pjs, sleeping bag, dressing gown and blanket. Youngest is naked with his top half out of the sleeping bag. I have covered him up but I know he'll be hanging out if I go back again in half an hour.
I would put something under the bed (a picnic mat is what we use) and then have pjs and an extra blanket. If your kids are normally hanging out of the bed they will when they camp as well. You will look at them and shiver but they'll be fine.
------------- pork
Remember a good wife always helps her husband with the dishes.