Camping with baby

Hi

I have been camping with my little boy since he was around 6 months old. As you know I had itchy feet like you too and I went camping with him in the winter.......

I just had my mrs at the back try to keep him settle. We try to stop every two hours during the trip so he can get out and see some stuff.

I think the biggest hurdle for us was to keep him warm at night. A sleeping back just don't cut it, as they produce very little heat to keep themself warm in the bag, so I bought one of those Coleman platinum heaters and put it next to him. The unit comes with a fan so it can spread the heat around the tent. Just remember to keep an opening of the tent for fresh air to get into the tent if not the CO2......

While we are at the site, we carried our pram to stroll him around the place, and we have a big tarp for the rainy days. Just make sure you bring plenty of snack to keep him / her happy......

Happy camping

Barnesy,

our little girl did her first camping trip at 6 weeks.! And wasn't a problem. She is now 4 mths and we are off again this weekend, don't let age be a barrier, my parents took me out at a very young age as well.

cheers unc

Our little girls went camping from when they were only a few weeks old. Go for it.

We took ours bush camping when very young. It really just requires the same care and commonsense you need at home. We suggest you start off slowly with short trips and avoid hazards until you and child have had some practice together in a tent. You may get into trouble with very hot weather (babies dehydrate very quickly). Vry cold weather is also difficult and best avoided if possible at an early age (as already explained -not so sure about those heaters in a tent all night though). Also biting insects can ruin things quickly- try a mosquito net for his cot. Sandfly bites etc can quickly turn into infected sores and general misery! You also need some way of tethering a mobile baby - it is amazing how quickly they move and its always towards a hazard! At 6 months some sort of playpen would be useful.
Don't let any of this put you off - choose good weather and go! It will be fun. Our kids loved it and so did we. Lynne

Contrary to popular belief, having a kid is not a life sentence.....just think of all the wonderful times you will have dealing with them when they are still living at home aged 30 LOL

We went travelling when our second son was 3 weeks old. Rather than sit at home and feed, change nappies, feed, change nappies, we felt it right to travel and enjoy ourselves as we had the time.

Enjoy the time spent with them and do what you need to do to enjoy it as a family.

Andrew

from an old grandad ----go for it ---some good advice given here

Just go
short stint couple of days is easy and easily achievable.
You can keep routine and provede different scenery for "possum eyes"

Dont forget the indegineous mob did it for real without modern convienence for approx 60, 000 years

The family rewards are there why all the stress ???

Do it just go

We took our daughter on her first trip at 6 weeks. no problems, just stopped after 3 or 4 hours to feed and she was happy. they can get a bit crappy at the end of the day but that passes. she is now 3 and a bit. we also have a 4 month old boy that is OK in the car for 4 to 5 hours before he needs a feed. so my advice is like Arnie says.............DO IT!!

Two of our kids were introduced to camping about 3mths old. The middle one was about 1. He was so scared of rough tracks and winged and..... Best done early. Portable cot is a must. They can play in it while setting up/down and obviously sleep in it. We also had a jolly jumper. One thing we found out the hard way don't think a sleeping child in the car is nice during the day. When you want to sleep after a big day driving they are full of beans.
Sharon

Thanks to people for replying. He doesn't travel well, lasting at most 1 hour in the car before completely losing the plot and screaming, and that's with my wife in the back with him. We will persist however.

Barnsey

we have always travelled and camped with all our little ones.we went to St George gathering last year with our newest one ( he was 3 months old and was premi when he was born) and he did very well.
what a life experience you can give your kids by taking them camping.

Suprised no one has suggested to watch out for dingos.....lol.



Cheers.....Lionel.

Just done a week up at Fraser with our 6 month old and she had a ball...sleeps in the car when driving on the tracks. We found the portal cot was great and also a mozzie net to go over the top.

Get out there and have a ball

We left for a 6 month around Australia trip when our boy was 6 months old .
We found that we could travel around 400km max which was ok as we were in no hurry and had no places that we had to be at a certain time. Mornings were usually best . We have learnt that it is probably a good time to travel with a baby as he could not run away and get into to much trouble. As we were in a camper trailer and headed south in the mid autumn , winter and he didn't like blankets on him at night we had to stop at caravan parks at some nights to run a heater at night . Even though the heater was fighting a losing battle it helped . Other than that he was fine and we really enjoyed it and would do it again . We thought that at this age he would not remember things but if you touch the 4wd or camper trailer he gets awfully excited . Also at caravan parks the grey nomads loved him and would regularly take care of him as we set up .

Go ahead and get out there.
We spent a month on the road with our little one at 4 months, and after a while we got into a routine, which changed often ;).

Found that after morning feed and play, she went down, and we got 1-2 hrs driving in whilst she was asleap.
When she awoke, it was time for a drink/ feed, and gentle cuddles.
Then maybe another hr of driving either asleap or awake, and then lunch.
the afternoons were not so easy, with her wanting our attention and time, and once she got more active, and mobile, we needed to allow her time to do this.
Would get out again in a hearbeat, get them used to it, the best form of education for them is out there with you learning real stuff, not the craaaap they will be subject to in the schooling system when older.

Trains

As long as you are able to keep the little one warm, you should be right. I am actually someone who was introduced to camping (and hiking!) at a very young age, one of the earliest photographs of me was when I was two months old at Mt Loch (near Mt Hotham in Victoria) being bottle fed in the bush. We were camping in Harrietville at the time. I think i turned out fine, bush hardened if anything. :)

I would just make sure that the little one can be kept warm, and if you are going to the bush, just make sure that you are extra careful with snakes, etc.

Bonkers,

The older they get the harder camping becomes. We've taken our kids camping since they were about 2-3 months old at that age they don't walk around or crawl, have food on tap and as long as you can keep them warm they're happy.
later they start moving around and get dirty, start putting things in their mouths, need to be entertained etc. Still lots of fun but more work.