This weekend we did a dry run with our 2 year old daughter for camping holiday we have planned in 2 weeks. All went fine apart from her waking up at 4 / 5 o’clock with the birds both mornings and a disturbed sleep.

I suspect that she was cold but are there any other useful bits of advice for taking toddlers camping? I suspect that over a longer trip away she’ll get tired so that after a couple of nights she’ll b back to sleeping all the way through again.

She’ll get used to the set up pretty quickly. Try and make her bed the same every night, in the same location. Shoring up around the bed will stop her wriggling out. I used to use a fleece blanket wrapped over and under to pin the blighters down.

And why aren’t you up with the birds as well? 🙂

Fwiw – we found that the usual routine for bedtime etc might as well be abandoned for the first night – its all far too exciting, so let them stay up, see the stars etc for a bit. Then for subsequent nights they’ll all be tired at the usual times and you can carry on as usual.

I’m thinking of doing a couple of tester nights (with our 3.5yr old) in a tent in the back garden. House will be off-limits from 7pm to 7am. Dog and cat will no doubt join us too.

Interested to see what other peeps have done.

We’ve been camping loads with ours, currently 3 & 5.

Basically tire them out during the day, but don’t worry about the home regime too much and expect to get up very early and spend the first hour or two shushing them!!

They soon get used to it and after the first couple of nights tend to go to bed once it’s dark.

I think a fun weekend away is a better test than your garden. Too many familiar things. Just throw them into a new environment completely. Kids are really adaptable, more so than parents 😉

We just started early with our lot, just to get to bike races/events and if you do it regularly – then it’s an exciting, but normal thing to do. Think we started at a few weeks for one and about 1 year for the other. Just tied a knot in their sleeping bags to stop them sliding down too far. They’ve also got kiddie thermarest copies from decathalon or somewhere. No problems with being cold. Lots of picnic blankets are a good idea too if your’s need some dry floor space outside.

And if you take your bike, never forget their balance bike/trike/scooter/trailer/ whatever wheeled thingy, so they can really get stuck in with your activity. Ours always associate camping with riding bikes now – all good!

Going to sleep wasn’t a problem, it was the waking up early that wa.

If anyone’s interested we’ve been using a Kampa junior airbed which is like a tiny rubber dinghy. She can crawl out of it but keeps her ‘contained’ during night wiggles. £17 full price, available for less.

We had our eldest in the tent at 10 weeks old and 12 weeks with the boy. They are 13 and 5 now and both just treat camping as something they “just do” – we kept them warm with a proper sleeping mat and wedged in between us with a kids sleeping bag. The eldest spent her first nights camping wrapped in a down jacket!

The main thing is to just treat it as a normal thing, don’t let them set the agenda, stick to a similar bedtime as at home and if they do kick off use distraction etc. We have stuck the boy in the car at 0500 and gone for a drive to lessen the annoyance (bit of a rare one that).

It’s very much a case of making it “normal practice”. We also find that going away with other friends and their families helps; more experienced kids help the noobs settle in.

Good luck and keep it up.

Chris

Someone gave us the tip of taking a fairly big silicon mortar bucket (a clean one) for use as a bath. Its a bit of a pain to fill and carry, particularly on large campsites, but it means you can give them a quick bath before bed without dragging them past lots of interesting things on the way back from the showers just before bed and makes them easier to settle. It always worked very well for us and because the buckets are foldable doesn’t take any car space.

Always found the first night a complete nightmare but the subsequent nights get better and better.

My lad loved it! If your going in a car it takes minimalish space to pack in loads of cushions and QUILTS ontop of everything else. It makes it quite nice in there/relaxing in an evening and the cold morning doesn’t matter.

Our’s turned 1 in Feb and planning a couple of trips in the Summer. That Kampa bed sounds like a cracking idea. With him, us and our dog in the tent I can’t see him ever wanting to go to sleep.

BTW – quilts/cushions. I did this in a Citroen C1 in the rear passenger footwells compressed down so you don’t need a huge car……..

They soon get used to it and after the first couple of nights tend to go to bed once it’s dark.

This is not much help when it currently doesn’t go dark until after 9pm!

Aah, they’re on holiday, let them play.

That’s the great thing about camping, you can sit and have a beer/glass of wine while the kids just run around a field. 😀

Not read all the above, but if you are using sleeping bags get a fleecy liner, make sure baffle is tightened. Even a hat or a buff might help Dont let them lie nearest to the outer. If not sleeping bags, but maybe for future, get same bags but one that zips on left and one on right, you can them zip them together for more heat.

how do you stop them standing up and escaping?

how do you stop them standing up and escaping

sorry – from the sleeping bags? If that, then yes they do, then get cold then wake you up !