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has any of you been camping in a pop up or other camping with a toddler? we are going close to home for the first time with our 18 month old this weekend. just wondering if you have any advise?
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I haven't been camping with a little one but I would love to hear how it goes for you! My website, TravelMamas - Travel advice, tips, packing lists and resources for parents of babies and children is for parents who want to travel with babies, toddlers, and children...and stay sane! I would love to get some tips from anyone who has taken on the challenge of camping with young children to include on the site! Good luck & let us know how it goes!
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Enjoy the journey,
Colleen Lanin
"The Travel Mama" www.TravelMamas.com - a site for parents who want to travel with their children...and stay sane!
Have over the years camped with children from 3 months old up.
When our youngest was 9 months old we tent camped at a campground for an amusement park (dd#2 was 20 months when we camped in FW) We always pack disposable everything possible with extras. Camping I assume you will be driving which makes it easy to go to the grocery store in Lake Buena Vista shopping center to pick up any necessities. We did not have pack n plays when our children were that age so they went into kid's sleeping bags. I never thought of it being strange or different to take along a little one camping just packing a bit extra. If you are camping at FW the store and Trail's End are terrific. You can get snacks at the stores and the buffet is a great place to get a hot breakfast, lunch or dinner without cooking at your site and there is a great selection. Most loops are small enough that there is not a long walk to the bathhouse or bus stop. Definitely bring your own stroller or two. I found that it was great in the campground to have an umbrella stroller, but in the parks a larger stroller is more convenient. You have the option to park car at the parks, take bus to where you want or take the boat to WL, Contemp. or MK. If you are new to camping altogether remember that it is in general a more laid back type of vacation and there are so many activities at the campground that you can stay busy even if you are on a more limited budget. I would camp again in a heartbeat but dh feels that we did our time in that area and at 56 he deserves to have a comfy bed to sleep in at the end of the day. In Sept when we will be vacationing with 4 children - husbands/wives and 9 grandchildren we plan on a day at the campground exploring and going to petting zoo before we do Hoop dee doo review.
We've been camping/boating/fishing with the kids at that age.
Couple of things:
If you freak out about your DD getting dirty - don't go.
take lots of toys to play with outside. The best toys we took were buckets and shovels. the kids would love to move dirt or ashes from one place to another - and carrying water back and forth.
Insects are fascinating.
Fire is appealing - keep a CLOSE eye on the baby while you have a fire going.
Make sure you take long sleeve shirts and pants, and tuck the pants in to her socks. Check her for ticks every evening.
Good thing about camping with a baby - in my experience, they sleep very well - fresh air is like NyQuil to them!
Watching them discover the natural world around them is so great!!
It's fun!
Bad things:
There is no place to set them down and walk away.
Nope and I don't think I ever would. My DD is ALL over the place and the
pop up wouldn't be big enough for her. Also she likes her own sleeping space
and we like our bed WAY to much. My DH wants to drive an RV to WDW sometime
and camp at Ft. W but I don't want to do it until she is at least 5-6.
We tent camped quite a bit when our kids were young. I think my DD was only a few months on her first camping trip. We used sleeping bags and air mattresses, never a pack and play. We did buy a large tent when we had three kids. I thought it was important that they could walk around in the tent and not touch the walls. We were fortunate that we never had really bad weather when camping with kids.
The only bad experience we had was going out for seafood with out 4 year old seafood lover. He are a little too much and ended up getting sick in the tent (although not a huge mess).
We also tried to get sites close to the bathrooms. While they weren't the most scenic sites, at 1 AM, close to the bathroom is more important.
We have tent camped with all three of ours...youngest DS was 3 months first time he went.
You've gotten good advice...We always set the Pack & play up in the tent (we have a HUGE tent) for the baby to sleep in.
We also have always drawn a ring around the fire in the sand AS SOON AS WE GET TO THE SITE and this is the "NoGo" zone whether the fire is lit or not!
We always made sure we picked really family friendly camp grounds...When we went two years ago we requested a site close to the playground and bathrooms, which was nice. We could see the playground from our site and even hear the kids talking so they had a little bit of freedom (obviously they are older).
We never go for more than 2 nights (That's because of me...I like camping but not THAT much!!LOL!!) so I never worry about showers at the site...we have them take one the morning we leave then throw them in the minute we get home!
There are probably a lot of rcommendations and ideas which could fill a book. I have done a lot of various type campings. 2 cents that come to my spueeky mind with children are:
1. Fire places, rings, etc. are the most important. As mentioned above (other post), these are no no's as ashes will stay hot overnight. Especially dangerous is the last wood or logs addded at night. Logs can burn all night and even if it looks out the ashes can be not. Do not assume that an earlier fire is completely out even if you put sand or water on it. For camp grounds take extra toilet paper with you. Something nice would be a large screen type tarp for shade (6 ft. by 10 ft.) for the children. Buy a couple $1.00 clamps and you can move it anywhere as the sun moves in a few seconds.
1) Make sure your baby sleeps thru the night at home before you try it....other campers will hear what happens in your tent/pop-up at night, and a crying baby will drive people crazy.
2) Bring a screen room/dining tent if at all possible. This gives you a place to eat and put the little one down outdoors that is enclosed, and mostly bug free. (We even brought a 10x10 outdoor carpet to put down inside the dining tent when the kids were crawling. (It was fantastic to have a place to put the kids down outside that wasn't in the mud and dirt!)
3) We found that a baby "backpack" worked better than a stroller on uneven campground roads, but if you don't want or have one, make sure you have a stroller that can deal with uneven ground.
4) If you are going during a time that it will be hot, make sure you have a way to keep baby cool in the tent (or pop-up without air conditioning) during naptime. It can get really hot in there during the day. They sell small (9" square) re-chargable fans at Walmart with a 40 hour battery life that are perfect for camping.
5) NIGHTLIGHTS: If your kids sleep with a nightlight at home (mine do), then you will need a nightlight while you are camping. Those small "Tap lights" work well, as do the glowsticks that you can buy anywhere. Without a nightlight, our kids were afraid to be in the tents by themselves, and so we couldn't put them down at night unless we went with them. We love to sit by the fire after the kids go to sleep at night, so we make sure we have a nightlight with us always - even now that our kids are a bit older.
I found that it was actually easier to bring a baby in diapers than a pre-schooler, because bathrooms are not always close by or as clean as I'd like, and little ones aren't tall enought to "squat". Diapers were less of a hassle to me.
With a bit of extra preparation, camping with little ones can be so much fun!
DH and I have a 5th wheel camper and while we do not have children, we have taken our nieces several times. One of the best ideas we have seen to protect the real young ones from the hot campfire is to bring some of the wire dog panels (they are used at dog shows...you can buy them in any good pet catalog and perhaps a place like Petco) that people put together so their dogs have a "play area" and place them around the campfire. We have some that we use for our dog "on site" at campgrounds and it does do a wonderful job of keeping the kids out of the fire! Have a great trip.
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