camping with a baby?

[taramoon13]

looking for advice on camping with a baby. i guess my biggest question is how/where did they sleep?! ds is 2.5 mo btw. thanx for any tips!!!!

[mom2happy]

The baby goes between me and DH on a blow up mattress.

I lie down with him/ her until they fall asleep and then zip up the tent and relax by the campfire with a drink.

2 yrs old is a lot easier to go camping with than I thought before I tried.

You just have to be more watchful than usual. They love the campfire!

You don't have to bring many toys. They are very occupied with the rocks, sticks, and dirt.

I bring a good all natural bug spray for the evenings.

[mra]

It depends. Are you talking tent camping or will you be in a camper with running water? What is the weather like? Are you driving far to get to your camping destination?

[SilverFish]

we went camping with our dd for the first time when she was 4 months old approx. it was actually really easy, and we were even canoeing and portaging to our campsite. the most important thing is a good, supportive carrier like a mei tai or buckle carrier. i was able to strap her on me and then carry our bags, canoe and equipment, set up the campsite, etc. to canoe, we put her in a infant life jacket  (she wasn't a fan of the motion, actually, but it wasn't a very long trip).

for sleeping, we had her in between my dh and i on a little nest of blankets. i brought her into the sleeping bag with me to nurse and for the rest of the night. sleeping was really pretty easy though... she seemed to sleep really well with the fresh air.

the biggest concern with a baby that young i think is sun exposure and bugs. she was too little for me to want to put bug spray or sunscreen of any sort on her, but staying out of the sun often means more bugs... it was a bit of an issue, but easily solved if you're careful about when and where you camp.

[arieltron]

my DD has been camping a couple of times since she was born. I have a really nice sleeping pad. It's lightweight and makes it easy to comfortably nurse. If it's cold out I bundle DD up in warm pajamas and a cap. I wear a warm thermal to bed and then I just unzip the sleeping bag and fold it over and her sleep next to me. When she was 0-3 mo I carried her in a moby wrap. I got DH a child carrier backpack from REI for his birthday :), and DD rode in that the last time we camped. We even hiked with her in it up a really steep trail. One problem I ran into was DD didn't like it when it was really dark, and there's a fire ban going on here so next time I want to get a lantern for her, she's 6 mo.

this was awesome for camping! She loved it!

[taramoon13]

great suggestions ladies. we don't have a blow-up mattress, just mattress pads & sleeping bags, so i think i will just try folding my bag back a bit & putting baby in with me.  we'll have ds #1 (3.5) with us too and you're absolutely right about not needing toys, he was in heaven with all the sticks, rocks, etc. last time we went ( before ds #2 came into the world),  we did bring a board game and some books for in the tent before sleeptime and he loved it. we will just be going "car-camping" to start out with baby. we never took ds #1 camping as a baby, so it's a whole new thing to us. we're excited though as we have our nice new big tent!

[livinlovinlaughin]

My mom and sister have used a laundry basket with blankets. A travel bassinet :)

[osker]

We took E camping at ten weeks. She slept in the sleeping bag with mama and loved it!

[MJB]

All 3 of my kids have been camping as infants. They share my sleeping bag and are in a carrier or playing on the ground the rest of the time (away from the fire!) 

I can't wait to go again this spring! 

[beckington]

We are planning on going camping this summer - ds1 loves it, though dh just tolerates it! But I'm unsure of what to do about biting insects. That's my main coconcern. How do you all handle that? (ds2 was born in December, so will be around 7-8 months when we go - hopefully before he starts crawling!)