What age did you first take your children camping

As above really and how did they get on? Any tips or useful things to take with you.

8 months & 4 months
Both loved it.
Putting the tent up singlehanded had it’s moments.

4 months also, we used one of the Samsonite Pop-Up Bubbles, small to pack, easy to setup, kids love it.

4 months also here. She loved it and developed a lot during the week as we had lots of time to give.

We took the mattress from the cot and one of those sleeping bags

we took ours aged 7 months.. he was fine and had a good time.. he had a tiny little inflatable cot/bed thing which cocooned him snugly..

the problem I had was that it wasn’t particularly warm.. and although he slept like a log I was awake half the night worrying about him..

We’ve negated all chance of this happening since by staying on sites with electric hook-ups during colder months and taking a heater..

He went to his first music festival at 10 months which gave us a whole different set of issues to contend with..

According to the family photo album i was 9 months when i first went camping I’ve managed to repress the memories but from the photos i look very happy.

We plan to take our little boy this year he’ll be 10 months when we go.

We first did it at 15 months. Rose was fine with it. Lots of friends have done it much earlier, we didn’t for various reasons partly just cos of the time of year she was born making it less attractive.

We took the travel cot (Phil and Teds one), that was handy, to stop her roaming in the night. I know of people who sleep their babies just in the main tent with them, depends on how much of a wriggler / escaper yours is, and how much you enjoy having a small over-excited gigantic slug-like sleeping bag creature crawling over your face in the middle of the night.

Done it twice, once with tons of gear, car camping, which was nice, nice to have nice meals, a table to eat off, double ring cooker etc. Second time I did it lightweight with her in the bike trailer, and my 2 man ultralight hiking tent. That was brilliant too, slightly different (we went for cold food / pub meals), but easy enough to do.

Pictures of the bike trailer trip here (you shouldn’t need a facebook account to seem them)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150381323769388.408411.635999387&type=3&l=07049df796

Rose loved it both times.

It makes a big difference if you have a good sleeper – Rose is very energetic, which means she goes out like a light at the end of the day. Not the easiest to get to sleep, but once she was gone, she was down until 6.30 or so. If you don’t, you might have a real nightmare, particularly if there are any other kids around who can get woken up by them / vice versa.

Also, if it’s the middle of summer, expect them to wake nearish to dawn and plan accordingly (ie. work out who is going to take them for an early morning walk so everyone else can sleep!).

Oh, the only super vital thing (other than obvious things like nappies etc.) is a rain suit or rain trousers/salopettes. Even if it doesn’t rain, there’s usually a lot of dew around to fall over in, and if it does rain, kids don’t understand about sitting in the tent reading a book. Wellies if they walk too obviously.

If there’s only one of you taking them, don’t forget that this basically means early nights, or at least back to the tent early. I don’t find this a problem personally, especially if I know I’ll be up at 6 the next day anyway!

Joe

As soon as we could, and they are now 14 & 18 and still want to come with us

2.5 weeks, Mountain Mayhem 3 years ago, he was the whitest thing on the campsite and could probably have been seen from space!

Oh and with the sleeping arrangements, be careful following other people’s recommendations, as babies are so different – Rose could turn the samsonite thing over at a ridiculously young age, she rolled over at about 3 months I think, and she wasn’t a good co-sleeper once she could roll.

The Phil and Ted’s portable baby zoo thing* is brilliant for a baby like that, I think she still can’t escape it now at 20 months, despite being able to climb out of a normal cot, and it only weighs 2.5 kg (slightly more than my hiking tent though!). It is expensive, but lovely and big, and very very sturdy.

*actually called a traveller portable cot or something like that.

biggest problem we had was them waking early due to the light (they have blackout blinds at home).

we ended up covering one of the pods inside the tent with blackout material so they were in darkness made the difference between a 5:30am start and a 7:30am one…

2 years old and he’d just learnt to run off. Nightmare. I suggest you avoid this scenario.

Think I was 30 at the time. He was just over 2 months old and it was the Puffer we were at.

I was taken camping pre 1 and slept in a suitcase.

About 8 months, no problems to report

about 6 weeks and 6 months for the youngest
never had any real issues beyond the eldest waking up if it rains and getting cross at the noise- as we camp in Britain this is thankfully a rarity 8)
Main thing is other campers – you still need early nights and they are not quiet when they wake up so if the campsite keeps you awake till 2 am its a nightmare

About 10 months I think, I know she had just started crawling and she seemed to really enjoy the freedom. We had a travel cot that time but now she is a little older she has her own little inflatable mattress which has raised edges. It looks a little bit like a blow up dinghy.

Top tip: a two year old can escape under under a storm flap from a tent with no sewn in ground sheet quicker than you can put your clothes on and do lots of unzipping of doors.

Both of ours have camped from a few months old at music festivals and general camping trips. We’ve got a bell tent and the additional space it provides makes it a really comfortable and easy break.
They sleep on the smallest Alpkit mats covered with a fleece blanket whilst we use the big fat ones. Sleepingbags are infant sized mummy ones (possibly vango?) that were very cheap. An adult bag with a cable tie to shorten is also fine.
Never had issues with cold and they both sleep like sedated logs (and much beter than at home)
Can’t wait for spring!!

Thanks for the replies some good info

LOL @ paulosaxo!

both were less than a year old when they first camped.
Our oldest (now 4) did 2 weeks at Scout camp then straight into a 2 week camping roadtrip to Spain when she was 16 months old – and loved every minute of it.
Top tip would be take a pop-up travel cot, they can be used as a handy cage when you want to stop them escaping while you are cooking/putting up tents, etc..