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First trip with new baby advice

sam22
Explorer III
Explorer III
Hey everyone, my wife and I can't wait to introduce our little girl to camping and are looking for any advice anyone might have on what to bring/do and want not to do. She will be 1 in July but was born 3 months premature so will be closer to a 9 month old when we head out. We've got a few weekend trips in May/June planned to test things out but then in July we are heading out for a 3 week trip to Idaho, Oregon and Montana...which might be a little ambitious but go big or go home right?! Thanks in advance for your tips!
Camper:
2015 Evergreen Ascend 232BHS
Towed with:
2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2019 Ram 1500 Big Horn
21 REPLIES 21

theoldwizard1
Explorer
Explorer
A large piece of indoor-outdoor carpeting to play on.

1 yo might be a little young, but when they get to be 2 or 3, get a small folding table and a couple of small chairs. Their own table for drawing/coloring/playing and even eating.

Tiger4x4RV
Nomad
Nomad
Both of my daughters started camping in our tiny TT at 6 weeks of age. They are in their 50's now and both are still camping. You are starting yours off right.
2006 Tiger CX 4x4, 8.1 L gas V-8, Allison 6-speed

Kevinwa
Explorer
Explorer
JKJavelin wrote:
We started out with a tent, and I know for sure one daughter born in mid May 1979 went camping in July. We have 4 kids and they all camped as babies, but by the last one we graduated to a pop-up. The only thing we did different was use disposable diapers instead of the usual cloth....I'm sure unheard of these days!
They will survive.
JK
we used cloth diapers on our boys, born in 2011 and 2013. They are sure fancier then the ones my mom used on my brother and I in the 80โ€™s. For camping one of the items was making sure we knew where the laundry Matt was and packing diaper detergent! (Standard tide type detergents had so many additives that would build up in the cloth and reduce the absorbency)

To the OP. We werenโ€™t hard core campers when our boys were born, but have been taking them on two week camping trips to the mountains since they were a couple months old. Totally different if in a tent, I canโ€™t speak to that, but when in a rv travel trailer type rig it really is no different then being at home. We would borrow my parents little 18โ€™ camper at first, so the only place we had for the boys to sleep was in their play pen on top of the folded down dining table. Left it set up the whole trip and ate outside. Only thing that could be an issue is noise. Some babies wake very easy. Friends of ours would run the AC fan as white noise whenever their kids were asleep. The little bath tubs in most campers are perfect baby size!

One heads up, word of caution. A wet diaper can set off the LP gas detector. Be careful not to change the diaper in the middle of the night right in front of it. This was learnt from experience!

Lwiddis
Explorer II
Explorer II
If you are smiling and happy your child will be too. We stopped every hour for a few minutes on the first few trips for playtime.
Winnebago 2101DS TT & 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71, WindyNation 300 watt solar-Lossigy 200 AH Lithium battery. Prefer boondocking, USFS, COE, BLM, NPS, TVA, state camps. Bicyclist. 14 yr. Army -11B40 then 11A - (MOS 1542 & 1560) IOBC & IOAC grad

JKJavelin
Explorer III
Explorer III
We started out with a tent, and I know for sure one daughter born in mid May 1979 went camping in July. We have 4 kids and they all camped as babies, but by the last one we graduated to a pop-up. The only thing we did different was use disposable diapers instead of the usual cloth....I'm sure unheard of these days!
They will survive.
JK
2018 Ram 3500 Laramie Cummins 6.7
2016 Open Range RF316RLS
Titan Disc Brakes
Trailair pinbox
Morryde AllTrek 4000 w/ wetbolt kit
Demco Autoslide
570 watts of Solar

2017-2022 555 Nights
2023- 106 Nights

mleekamp
Explorer
Explorer
We did it when our oldest was 4 months old. We started small...lot of state parks within 3 hours of home. By the time she was 2, we were in other states. For us, both pulling a TT and a baby were new to us, so we didn't push it too much on either side.

By the time we had our 2nd, at 3yrs old we were pulling out TT from IL to FL for Disney. Multiple day drive. So, yeah, when the kids are used to it, it just works. They knew young that this is what we do.

valhalla360
Nomad III
Nomad III
200yrs ago...Indians did it year round without an RV. Don't overthink it.

Assuming no significant health issues...start out staying at parks with power & water so you can keep the little one comfortable and clean while you sort things out.
Tammy & Mike
Ford F250 V10
2021 Gray Wolf
Gemini Catamaran 34'
Full Time spliting time between boat and RV