Outdoor Family Adventuring

Camping with kids brings it own set of challenges but when one of those kids is a baby or toddler? Parents, your mornings and bedtimes are about to get interesting. My oldest child was just over 2 years old on his first camping trip, my second child was 8 months old on her first trip and my third child’s first trip was at a mere (almost) 9 weeks old! As the years have gone by, and our confidence grew, our babies got younger and younger on those inaugural camping trips 🙂

While I am certainly not an expert, I have learned a thing or two that may be helpful if you’re just starting to get out camping with your babies and are intimidated by the morning and nighttime routines.

Be Flexible – One of the first things I tell my friends who are looking for advice for camping with their babies is to BE FLEXIBLE. Your baby goes to be at 7:00pm every night at home you say? Well, let that routine go, you’re camping. There are no blackout curtains in the forest my friends. My best advice is to not worry about the bedtime routine – give baby a later nap and keep them up until the sun goes down; it is an unnecessary stress to try and get them down in a tent with the evening sun streaming in. Plus, once it starts to get dark, campgrounds quiet down which means you will have less noise to contend with. White noise is helpful as well, especially if that is normally part of your baby’s sleep routine. We use an old cell phone and an app called White Noise Baby, but there are tons of options for travel size white noise machines. If you are in a trailer and/or camping at an electrical site, your options open up even more. But really, an old cell phone works perfectly and you likely have one lying around your house.

Have A Plan For Early Wake Ups – Our first summer camping with both my middle and youngest daughters was slightly easier because they were so young on those trips. If the baby woke up early it didn’t matter too much because she was still nursing – I would pop her on the boob and she was out again like a light leaving me with at least 2 hours of extra shut eye. The minute that baby turned into a toddler, the experience shifts and suddenly we could not always guarantee a full nights sleep. We had to get creative. Between my partner and I, we try to come up with a plan A and B should the sleeping goals not be reached. We have had our daughter wake up at 3:30am screaming her head off and there was no consoling her. In this situation, my partner took her out for an EXTREMELY early campground loop walk and then some Netflix in the car with the heat on a bit (it was a chilly morning!). Around 6:30am we switched off, and he got a few hours of shuteye while I took over with the early riser. Other mornings, a kiddo might awake closer to 5:00am or 6:00am and I’ll head for a drive with them where they will almost always fall back asleep. I always quickly make a coffee before heading out (or, if I’m spoiled and a Tim Hortons is close by I head to the drive thru for my caffeine fix). However I get it, I enjoy my coffee and a view somewhere in or around the campground or surrounding area. I will usually head back to the campsite around 7:30am and switch off with my partner to get a few extra moments of sleep while he manages breakfast and the kids.

Breakfasts and Dinners – I am all about convenience. We mostly used baby led weaning techniques when my kids were babies and moved to solids around 6 months so by the time we went camping those first years, they already had a set of foods they were comfortable with and we knew were safe. Camping is not a time to test out new foods, especially ones that may elicit a reaction such as peanut butter. Oatmeal (I buy instant!), yogurt, bananas, watermelon, macaroni and cheese (I am not to proud to admit that my kids have scarfed down some Kraft Dinner on a regular basis), scrambled eggs, peppers cut into strips, green beans, crackers, hummus … all of these foods are easily transportable, easy for self feeding if that’s your baby feeding jam and extremely convenient. Baby Gourmet baby food pouches and the ever delicious Baby Mum Mums were also camping food winners and come along, even now at 2 years old. They are a fantastic easy snack choice when you’re on the go. You can also get real fancy and buy one of those pie irons and voila, grilled cheese for your toddler over the fire. Don’t forget about hydration – my girls nursed fairly often when camping because I wanted to be sure they were hydrated in the hot weather. A water cup was always in reach as well for her.

Clothes, Clothes, and More Clothes – weather can be unpredictable and babies are messy. Extra clothes will get used, I promise you. We have camped when overnight temperatures hit 9 degrees which was chilly in our larger tent and the baby was sleeping in the pack and play. For infants, I would bring two Halo sleepsacks – a warmer fall/winter one and a light summer one. I have used the winter one in July but I have also had my girls sleeping in a short sleeve onesie due to extreme heat temperatures overnight- on one trip to Balsam Lake the coolest night temperature we got was 30 degrees! While bringing two sleepsacks might seem like overkill, if you are like me, the extra insurance of knowing you have options make the extra packing worth it. The same goes for PJ’s – bring along a few extra options of differing warmth levels. Footsie pajamas are always a good choice to keep those baby toesies warm. You want to be sure your kiddos are going to bed in fresh, dry clothes not the clothes they were wearing throughout the evening. Fresh dry clothes will help to keep them warm overnight.

All this said – camping with a baby or toddler is stressful especially the first few times you take them. I make no promises that it will go off without a hitch but with a bit of planning you should have all your bases covered for the big stuff – less dramatic bedtimes/wake-ups, convenient food options and a toasty warm baby all night!