How to Take Your Baby Camping

• Posted on 1 April 2020
• By Customer Submission: Meg K of Adventure Report
• Posted in Advice, Camping, Customer Submission
• 0

Summer is just around the corner, and we’ve already started to plan our adventures!

We took our daughter camping last year when she was a baby, because we wanted to make sure we kept doing the things that we loved, even though our lives had changed so much. Now, we’re really looking forward to doing it again with her as a toddler! But until we can get out there, I’ve only got advice about camping with a baby. So here are my top tips on how to make it work!

Location, location, location…

Pick somewhere close to home. Every baby is different, and so is every trip. If yours doesn’t go well, there’s no shame in bailing out, heading home, and trying again another day.

Start Small

Go car camping. Especially if you don’t have a ton of experience camping, now is not the time to book a backcountry adventure or a canoe camping trip! With car camping, you'll still feel like you've reconnected with nature, but it will be a whole lot easier.

Get Organized

Pack things that you’ll need for different times of day or tasks together so that you don’t have to look through EVERYTHING you brought anytime you need something! Put all your cooking/food stuff together in one bin or bag, clothing and toiletries in another, baby stuff in another… You get it.

Eating

We began feeding our baby by doing Baby Led Weaning, which has always made it really easy for her to come along with us- she just eats what we eat! When she was younger and still took a bottle of formula in the middle of the night we filled the bottle with water and slept with it in our sleeping bags so it wouldn’t be too cold for her. Don’t forget a cap for the bottle so your sleeping bag doesn’t get wet, and measure out your formula ahead of time so you’re not stuck trying to do it in the dark!

Sleeping

Have your baby practice sleeping wherever they’ll be sleeping ahead of time. We use a Phil & Ted’s travel crib for our daughter when we’re on the road or camping, and it ALWAYS helps if we have her sleep in it at home for a week or so before we go on a trip. If at all possible, let your baby spend lots of time in the tent ahead of your trip to get comfortable there too.

We also brought along everything she was used to- sleep sack? Check. White noise? Absolutely. Pacifiers? Bring a spare!

The Tent

Bring a big tent, if you can. We have a ten-man tent for the three of us when we go car camping, and it’s great! We didn’t have to squish together, and there was lots of room for the crib.

Bugs

We picked up a four-sided bug tent before our daughter’s first camping trip and now I’m not sure that I would want to go without it! It was so great to be able to eat and let the baby play without worrying about her being eaten alive by bugs (especially because you can’t put bug spray on them too early).

Have Fun (or Try Again)

Camping with a baby can be a ton of fun, but it’s not always easy! Which is basically how EVERYTHING with a baby could be described, isn’t it? Your trip may not go perfectly, and that’s okay.

Practice makes perfect. The more you get out there with your baby, the more confident you’ll begin to feel. And besides, there’s nowhere else your baby would rather be than with you. Why not go camping together?

Follow Meg K Adventure Report on Instagram: @adventurereport