Camping Mammas....help?!?!?

[MeditationMama]

Hi,

I'm looking for mammas who have braved taking the young ones camping. DH, DD and DS (3 months on the 21st) and I will all be at Lake Lanier enjoying the fine camping weather it looks like we will be having this weekend.

My question is: What kind of non-toxic bug repellant can I safely use on a 3 month old?

I'll be at Harry's/Whole Foods at some point tomorrow and will look there but am concerned about using citrinella incase he gets it in his eyes or something. Any late night suggestions will be greatly appreciated along with any fun camp food recipes that do not use foil : Thanks!

[zjandosmom]

Buzz Off.....not sure about babies though. Whole Foods sells it. We have taken our babes as young as 3 weeks and it was not a problem. Maybe you can keep your little one in the sling to minimize bug contact? I did use light weight long sleeve little sleepers to keep as little skin exposed as possible. have fun!

[rcr]

We use california baby. Works well if you reapply it often.

[GirlOutOfNY]

We've been camping 2x in the last month and bugs have not been a problem at all. In fact I have not used any camping all summer. By Lanier tho there are a lot of wasps! I just saw how to make a trap in Organic Gardening, but I can't find that issue, you could search for it online maybe?

IMHO no baby is too young to go, but recently there was a young child SCREAMING for over an hour (9pm until after 10pm) before the park police came. If your child may be afraid of the dark or wound up or whatever, have some ideas ready to get them to sleep. Off the top of my head, take a stroller, or carrier to walk and lull them to sleep, or a car ride... but really it was mostly disturbing to me that they would let their dear child cry that loud for so long!!

[majick1]

We go camping all the time and haven't had a problem with bugs this summer at all.

As far as meals go, we do a good bit of grilling (no foil) and I also take a small crockpot which is great for chili, soup, spaghetti, etc. Things that taste better when cooked all day. A cast iron dutch oven you can pretty much use for anything and is great for breakfast as well. I would think that anything that calls for foil you could put in the dutch oven instead.

[MeditationMama]

Hi All

Thanks for the posts and responses. I just can't seem to find a "regular" time to check in here and respond. The trip went great! Carson was a superb little camper who spent much of his wake time cooing and conversing with the leaves in the trees. We were right on the lake so the breeze kept the mosquitos away and we didnt have any problems. We had the buzz off and took that with but I would like totry the california baby as we use the shampoo and creme rinse and loooove it.

majick1-We have a dutch oven and I had better success with it this trip than I have in the past. We also avoid using foil to cook in. Saturday AM breakfast was eggs sausage and biscuits in the dutch, with some Roma "coffee"---aaaaah, it was lovely. Dinner was in the dutch with cornish hens (yes-totally overboard) in a medley of potatoes, carrots and onion, along with a salad. One of my hens wasn't cooked all the way-the challange of the dutch oven until you get reacquanted with judging coal heat and such but it sure was tasty. we really enjoyed camping again and plan to start early next year.

Thanks everyone