Camping with a toddler

BlazeFire

My wife and I are considering taking our toddler (will be 20 months at time of trip) tent camping this summer. We are currently trying to sort out the little one's sleeping arrangements. Do we use a playpen? Co sleep with an inflatable mattress? Hook her up in an elaborate hammock made of her diapers?

Does anyone have experience with this? We currently own smaller tents so I think no matter what solution we come to, we'll be shopping for a bigger tent.

Xaquin

we used a porta crib

a battery powered fan and noise machine are helpful making sure he or she are comfortable

BlazeFire

Xaquin wrote: »

we used a porta crib

a battery powered fan and noise machine are helpful making sure he or she are comfortable

What is a porta crib? Is it similar to a play pen / pack'n'play / play yard (http://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/Newellsync/11747)?

urahonky

A Pack n Play should be sufficient. Just enough space for them to sleep in. White noise machines are a must too depending... Though you'll probably need a generator then. If they can sleep in absolute silence then you should be fine.

Xaquin

yes, a pack n play

I've always just called it a porta crib!

edit:

for a noise machine, I use my alarm clock (it plays rain sounds) since it just takes two AAs

ArbitraryDescriptor

Agree with Pack n' Play, but I request pictures if you go with diaper hammock.

mts

We are probably going camping with our infant in the next couple of weeks though outs is 11 months . We were going to just Co sleep I think though likely will have the pack and play with us in case.

BlazeFire

Thank you for the responses thus far. The space requirements of the pack and play can be a challenge. Some friends offered to loan us a large tent so maybe we will just take an air mattress and try the co-sleeping.

amateurhour

As an avid outdoorsman, a child is NEVER too young to learn how to make their own primitive lean-to.

serious answer: I don't have kids but have friends with kids who have been through this. 4/5 of them just did the air mattress. My .02 is don't overthink and overpack because if it doesn't work out camping with babby then that's just more shit you've got to pack up and carry back.

MichaelLC

We all just slept on the tent floor together and it was fine. Bring lots of books and light sources.

Look for bug spray with picaridin. It's supposed to be less terrible for kids than the other stuff.

dispatch.o

If it's car camping you can afford to bring things you may not need and figure out what works. I suggest a large wool blanket to put down that you don't necessarily care about just for a barefoot friendly area and playtime. Wool is super durable and resists fire embers pretty well.

BlazeFire

Yikes, totally forgot to say that yes it is car camping. We have some flexibility.

Corvus

Oh, excellent timing, may be doing some camping with our 1+ year old this year and need to figure this stuff out too.

We have a white noise machine we use at home that takes batteries as well as being plugable. I think it's a home spa version not marketed for babies.

Heir

We just use our kiddo's pack 'n play. He's 12 months old and has gone camping with us up in the mountains 3 times so far. We put some wool blankets underneath the pack 'n play to help insulate against the cold ground (it still gets down in the 30s up in the mountains here in CO this time of year). We dress him in layers with a beanie and he does fine. We avoid co-sleeping in an inflatable mattress for many reasons, the main one being that it's strongly discouraged by the AAP.

Try and keep a routine going no matter what.

Bring an inflatable swimming pool to bathe them in.

Be ok with them getting dirty. It's going to be ok.

Don't overpack like others said.

I use a white noise app on an old iphone of mine, and just bring a USB battery pack to keep it charged.