Camping With Babies

JWeaverCMA wrote:
Hey everyone,

Let's share our experiences with bringing tiny ones out on camping trips! Share your funny stories, your horror stories or just your overall experiences with camping with babies, toddlers, or a sullen teenager.

A bit about me- My name is Jared, I'm a father of 3 ages 10 months(girl), 23 months(boy) and 9 years(girl). My wife and I upgraded from a 6 man tent to a 25 foot travel trailer this spring and a week long trip down the Oregon Coast was our latest trip. Here were some good, bad and ugly experiences and lessons I learned.

The good- all the kiddos LOVE the outdoors! What a relief. It was good to see our oldest go out and make friends with fellow campers her age. Our boy is learning to stick with the group after a few walks around some of the sights we stopped at, he's usually a carefree wanderer. Our youngest loves being outside period. She's perfectly content in her play pen as long as it's outside.

The bad- they hate traveling to the campsite as much as they love actually being at the campsite. Driving turned into a bit of a nightmare as our boy would have a complete and utter meltdown halfway into each leg and lay seige to his sister, wearing her patience down with screaming kicking and hair pulling. Sleep is also a big problem, be won't stay in his bunk, or our bed for that matter. Does anybody else experience toddlers who won't sleep in the camper?

The ugly- both babies became highly irregular despite their diet not really changing from home to camping which led to a few diaper blowouts. Is it the stress? New environment? Does it go away with time and experience?

Overall it was a good experience. How about everyone else?

Young children are not very tolerant of changes in their drinking water. If you were using a local water supply for drinking, it is 99.999% sure to be safe, BUT it may be very different in mineral content. It doesn't take a big change to mess up a child's gut. So try bringing your drinking water from the same source they are used to, at least enough for the kiddos.

My daughter found this out when they moved from a city water supply, which was only slightly hard, to a well supply with much higher mineral content. Her 1 yr old had similar issues to your kiddos. They had the well tested twice, and there was no bacterial contamination, but the water is definitely much harder. Their pediatrician figured it out. So they put the 1 yr old back on bottled water and very gradually mixed in their well water over a period of a few months. He had no problems and made the transition just fine when it was gradual.

I am not a fan of screen time for kids, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Get a kids version kindle for the 23 month old, and load it up with some videos that he will be engrossed in for much of the trip. Also make frequent stops and make the kids get out for exercise. If they will nap in the car, get a small pillow to prop his head up so he is comfortable in the car seat while sleeping.