Yes i know it’s probably madness but me and the Mrs have taken the plunge. We’ve done a fair bit before the little one came along but this will be the first time mit child.

So first up – what do you sleep them in? Do you get kiddie sleeping bags? She’s only 3 and i have visions of her slipping down to the bottom of a regular sleeping bag. And what about a sleeping mat – she’ll be rolling all over the place i imagine.

Which leads me onto – you think it’s best if she sleeps with us in our compartment but a) she’s noisy b) she’ll be whacking me in the head all night and c)we’d need an extra big sleeping mat of some sort….

Vango convertable sleeping bag and a ready bed air bed with duvet cover built in to stop them sliding out the bottom.

Sleeping bag at least as good as yours and if its too long a belt around it to stop them disappearing.

Readyreds are perfect and just bags / clothes etc either side to stop them rolling about.
A few fleece blankets are great and can be added or taken away depending on how hot / cold it’s gets. Blanket under ready bed and one in top will prob be fine though.

Not madness at all, both ours were camping by 4 months so no fret really.

Decathlon do junior size bags. Check the ratings are appropriate for when you want to use them. I take the “comfort” level as minimum temp.
Get a selp inflating mat from Alpkit.
Basically, use the same stuff that you would consider comfortable. Air mats can be cold and personally, I get fed up with them losing air every couple of days.

We’ve been camping with our kids since the little one was 2 and it’s always been enjoyable.
We slept the two kids together in one room but there are tents out there with very thin, removable dividing walls (we have a Vango Orchy 500). If you get a 4-5 person single room tent, you could always have a gap between the mats and create a barrier with a couple of bags or a case or something to deflect the night time blows……
Choose somewhere that will keep them entertained. Even the tiniest playground at a campsite could make your life a lot easier.

Silence is golden.. duct tape is silver

You’ll be kept up all night and she’ll be awake at the crack of dawn. Other than that you’ll have a great time 🙂

these type of air beds are great for stopping them rolling off;

we covered the inner lining of one pod in our tent with blackout material (wasn’t that expensive) to stop that 4:30am wake up thing.

Funny thing is I dont remember anything special for camping with the kids except a bigger tent.
Oh and why wait till they are 3 ? This was our 2 some where in Germany

a few years later somewhere in France

Never had any problems, in fact kids camping is an asset. When you were woken up late at night by drunks returning and making noise it was great sending the kids out to play with the pots and pans at 6:00 in the morning.

I’m in the same boat as you..!!
Wife’s on nights this weekend, so taking our 3yo overnight camping on a site nearby!
Going to cycle there, play in the woods, have tea, then see how he settles in the tent!
I bought the kampa inflatable bed as above – don’t want him rolling out.. And will use one of our spare sleeping bags.
He’s excited, I’m excited!

Hopefully it’ll be the start of our ‘father and son’ mini cycle tours (My Dad’s coming too 😀 )

DrP

A Ready Bed is good in that it contains the child slightly if they are a night time wriggler and not too big for it. Rose (3 now) is fine now on a normal thermarest style thing, and the ready bed doesn’t combine well with a sleeping bag, so I don’t take it any more. The ready bed is great in the very hottest summer, when it is too hot for a sleeping bag.

Rose has a not that expensive summer sleeping bag that is rated at 18 degrees comfort temp, 10 degrees ‘transitional temperature’ or something. It often gets quite a lot colder than that (it was 3 degrees overnight last time we camped), but with tights and a warm vest, and winter pyjamas and thick socks, she doesn’t get cold. Warming her up by putting clothes on her has the added advantage that if (when) she goes for an explore in the night and leaves the sleeping bag, she still has some warm stuff on.

Don’t worry about doing bedtime at normal bedtime – just let them stay up late, and hope for late waking up too; last time I camped with Rose, she went to bed at 21:00 and woke up at 8:30, was bliss. Especially considering it was only me with her, so once she was asleep, I didn’t have much to do anyway, just get a good nights sleep in and a nice lie in (I actually woke up about an hour before her).

The compartments thing, the easiest camping I’ve had with Rose is in my 2 man ultralight hiking tent – just bunged two thermarests on the bottom so it is completely covered, her on a sleeping bag one side, me in a sleeping bag on the other side. If she wriggles around, I can grab her, and it doesn’t matter too much anyway. Dead easy. In the big 2 compartments tent, last time we tried putting her in her own room, we ended up with one person sleeping in next to her and a load of gear wedging her into as small a place as possible, she is a real night-time mover, and would go off and explore, and then get herself off the thermarest and get annoyed because it was less comfy.

Try and camp on the flat if possible – small kids find it really hard to come back up with their sleeping bag if the whole lot slides down the thermarest. Fine in a small tent but in a bigger tent they might well come off the end! There is a real gap in the market for a kids sleeping bag with a built in non-slip thermarest, or a sleeping bag/ready bed hybrid, some kind of warm base that is attached to the kid’s sleeping bag somehow so that they can’t slide off it.

My 3year old loves camping, sleeping mat, double duvet she sleeps on and under it, pillow from home – done 🙂

Going to cycle there, play in the woods, have tea, then see how he settles in the tent!

Oh yeah, forgot to say, camping and cycling, what a brilliant combination. We use the bike trailer at the moment, easily fits all we need in it. Great way to use all that ultra-lightweight hiking gear that you bought prior to having kids. Helps that I live 10 miles ride from the Peak District and 20 miles or so from some really nice campsites, but for most people there is a campsite somewhere within biking distance. And like I said above, might not be true for all kids, but for me, small tent + our toddler is much easier than big tent in terms of sleeping and all that.

I was camping with my little girl at the weekend. The light mornings didn’t seem to bother her, she slept from 8pm to 7.30am no problem at all. I made sure I wore her out in the daytime though 😉

She has one of those inflatable beds like wwaswas posted with a Gelert Sleeping Pod Jr with a blanket over the top. She seems perfectly happy tucked up in there with teddy.

yunki Jr at about 8 months

we used a travel cot when very young – was 6 weeks old when he first went – he was not the youngest on the site 😯

Then used a ready bed

Does everyone with a child under 4 years old have that stripy blanket from Mamas and Papas? That must be their best selling line.

blimmin’ great blanket though not as good as grandma’s hand me down hand knitted one obviously

We had a 4 man tent last time so the sleeping compartment was all beds, with 4 separate sections of blanket. No issues, other than the usual co-sleeping hazards of being kicked a lot.

Soooooooo envious.
Would love to do it all again.
Brilliant fun, wandering to wash breakfast pots was even an adventure when they are that age.
Can’t get the teenagers out of the camper roof until 10am now!!

We used standard foam mats, 2 layers in alternating directions then a big car blanket, then good quality sleeping bags in the right size – as has been said make sure they are good ones, cold children is a recipe for an unhappy camping trip. Then lots of cheap fleece blankets. Ours started at 2 & 3 and loved every minute. Have fun.

I bet your kids can wipe their own arses now though eh?

Excellent – thanks all for the advice – and putting my mind at rest 🙂

i must admit i spent a lot of my childhood camping and i survived – think my parents just about did too 😉