Camping with toddler, keeping them warm?

Gday Snowy
Just use a child's sleeping bag, the same as you use at home. The type with arms and hood , but body in a bag.
Murray

I know this is a serious question and I do apologise in advance, but I just couldn't resist - have you tried this approach?

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Hi Snowy,

You can get sleeping bags at just the right length for toddlers with arms. When you put the kids in and zip them up they can't sneak out of them in the middle of the night and then we just throw a good blanket over the top of this. If it was really cold, there is one piece pyjamas that went on before all of the above but this has generally been used on our inland adventures as we live in mild old Brisbane.

We have the kids bathed and rugged up in bed clothes before the sun goes down and then they just wear gum boots to keep the feet of the one piece pyjamas clean and it is just a matter of taking the boots off before bed. If you time it right, all this is being done by Mum whilst you are at happy hour.......ROFL (just kidding girls!!)

Happy camping,
Trevor.

Wiith all kids gear when camping in cold weather, I'd pay particular attention to flamabilty ratings. Some cold weather stuff is very prone to catching fire very easily and really flaring up fast and it can also melt and stick to the skin at the same time. Obviously not a good move if you have campfires.
Polar fleece stuff is terrific for warmth. Blankets made from it and microfibre are very warm and weigh almost nothing, but I have no idea of their flamability.

I just went googling on this and found the following.
Polar fleece (and the like) should not be used with infants anywhere there might be open fires. (There are some fire retardant versions available, but these aren't common and will have tags about this if they have been treated.
The following might be useful.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/ncr174.pdf

We've camped with our daughter since she was six weeks old. We've mostly used one piece thermals and/or zip-up one piece sleeping suits, sometimes with gloves and/or socks when near-freezing temperature is likely. For bedding, we have a single feather/down quilt folded in half with velcro down the side to seal/close the edges, placed inside a kindercot [mini-tent]. We've had many zero-degree nights and never any complaints from our daughter [whose now 3.5yrs]. As mentioned by others, gumboots work very well to keep the feet clean.

The time honoured human behaviour since we lived in caves is for everyone to snuggle in together!

Layers are the key, and what has already been written is good advice.

Wifey suggests baby tights, with trac pants over the top for days.
I made up a small canvas swag for our daughter, who was 4mths when we spend a month on the road.
Had sheets, blankets and we could just layer as required for the nights temp, the canvas also helps with the cold too.
Had a few -4 at the warrumbungles and at armidale, just keep them rugged up, and make sure there warm before putting down to bed. A light beanie is also a good investment, or two of them, cotton t shirt material is soft, and washes easily, as you are aware, they loose most of their heat thru their heads, and regulate body temp thru their heads, but on cold nights, its worth covering.
The below freezing mornings, our daughter was warm as toast, and wondered what we were complaining about. ;), being snuggled between us or with us also helped.

She just loved sitting in our laps by the fire, could have stayed there all night if given the chance. There good times, get them out there and used to it at a young age.

Trains

great advice above and we also took a hot water bottle to warm up the beds before they hoped in. seemed to start them off on the right foot

Layers is the key. make sure you insulate them from underneath with blankets. When our kids were little we put them in those kathmandu jumpsuits which always kept them warm on cold nights.