Saturday, August 6, 2011

Camping with a Baby

In the last two weeks, I've taken Alison on her first two camping trips.  Since we live high up in an apartment building with no real yard, I figured getting Alison outside constantly for 2-3 days at a time would be a great nature learning experience.  Camping in a tent with an infant, however, is not the easiest task.

 Alison DID end up loving the camping trips and spent a lot of time inspecting/eating the flowers around our campsite.

Where will the baby sleep?

If you have a large enough tent, I highly recommend bringing the pack n' play along.  That gives the baby a semi-comfortable place to sleep and also contains her when you don't want her running around.  This worked well for the first camping trip where I had borrowed a friend's larger tent.

A pair of friends brought their pop-up tent and an 8-month-old with them.  They took the table out, put one of the cushions on the ground between the seats, and bolted a board to the end to form a little crib area.  That worked pretty well.

Our family trip to Shenandoah was in a three-person tent with no room for the pack n' play.  I brought an extra sleeping mat, a sheet, and a blanket and situated Alison above my head.  However, it was obvious that she wasn't comfortable on the mat and we had a rough first night.  The second night she ended up moving to the tent floor between my husband and I.  Good thing no one rolled over.

What about food?

Camping food is notoriously unhealthy (mmmm, s'mores), so I brought some store-bought baby food for the trip.  I normally make my own food, but that needs to be refrigerated, which is not always possible while camping.

What else should we bring?

Bring a fan.  It was hot, hot, hot both trips and there is nothing worse than a baby who can't nap because they are uncomfortable.  Also bring layers just in case it gets cold.

Organic mosquito spray because babies are tasty.

Clothes you don't care about.  Alison's camping onesies are now two different colors - dirt-crusted on top, and clean where her shorts came up to cover them.

Shoes might have been nice for walking babies.  Alison doesn't own any yet because I've read shoes can inhibit learning to walk properly.  However, when concrete gets super-hot, it's probably more important to have those feet covered.  We had to swoop in and rescue her more than once.

A fence?  If you can think of a good way to ensure the baby doesn't get into the fire, bring that.  It is a lot of work to constantly remind a 10-month-old to stay away.

Additional gear: I don't think you need to run out and buy anything, but I got a kick out of this site.  For those of you that have the space and like to have specialized gear for your baby, this site has all kinds of things from baby tent cribs to carriers: https://www.mountainbaby.com.

What about activities?

People who sell things are pretty ingenius.  If there's something you like to do, chances are good that someone has come along with a product that will allow you take your baby.  Love hiking?  Get a baby backpack carrier (we have this one and like it a lot)!  Want to bike?  Get a trailer or child seat.  What about boating or floating?  They make life jackets for kids as small as 20 lbs and floaty toys for even smaller ones, which you can get online or I've seen them at Toys 'R Us.  Obviously, you should use your parental sixth sense when determining whether an activity is safe for a baby.

 Alison is reminding us to always bring along some water!

What about the neighbors?

This is a tough one.  I'd hate to wake up the entire campground with my child's crying.  Luckily Alison went right back to sleep quickly and the people around us were really nice about it.  Nursing usually gets the kid back to sleep fast, but I was ready to sit in the car a while just in case.  I never had to.

Bottom Line

In spite of the extra planning, the bottom line is that getting your kids outside early and often is wonderful for them and camping is a great way to do it.  I've noticed that Alison tends to learn faster outside and seems generally happier.  Based on the past two weekends, I can't find any excuse to wait until a child is older, so, go out, have fun, and be a family.  We'll see you on the trail!

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