When most parents think about camping with their infant, they instantly have a mini aneurysm. My husband and I did – until we watched a few YouTube videos that inspired us to go ahead take the plunge into the unknown. Was it a good idea? Was it a nightmare in the woods? I think most people would assume that camping with an infant would be an absolutely bad decision and would never attempt it. In fact, most people we talked to about this subject told us to wait until our baby is a little older, like 5! Preposterous! In this blog post I’ll be answering all your questions about camping with an infant.

     If camping without an infant makes you anxious, then maybe you shouldn’t attempt to even read this blog post. Camping just isn’t on everyone’s ‘to-do’ list, but if you love the outdoors and don’t mind the risks of bugs and critters, you may want to prepare a trip with you and your little one as soon as possible. Afterall, you want to continue living and loving what you did before you were a parent, right? What better way to prepare your new family member for a life of adventures by getting them out as early as you can possibly see fit? I say the sooner the better! I do understand however, that there are parents that live at the North Pole! Maybe travel and camp somewhere warmer until the little one can regulate their own body temperature! You most definitely do not want to be in a situation that will harm your child, but comfortable new surroundings won’t hurt them the least bit.

     When camping as an adult you always need to remember to bring 3 essential things: Food, Water and shelter. Camping with an infant is just slightly more ‘stuff’ to bring  – Food (formula if not breastfeeding), diapers, wipes, warm clothes (yes, even if it is summer) and a sleeping apparatus (bassinet or crib). Make sure you pack more of these items then you ‘think’ you’ll need too! My husband and I bought ‘just enough’ with us on our first camping trip with our 5 week old and we were nervous about having enough to get home without a ‘baby meltdown’. Although we ran out of formula that we packed, we had luckily brought formula samples to hold us over until we got home. That’s another thing to remember too, make sure you camp somewhere close to home for the first time – you will no doubt, forget something crucial and it will either make or break your trip.

     When talking about baby camping supplies, you always want to make sure you have more than ‘enough’. When preparing for our overnight at a local State Beach (El Capitan), we knew our baby goes through 32 ounces of formula within a day and a half – so we brought 96 ounces of pre-mixed Similac with us (it does not need to be kept cool until opened). This also cuts down on the amount of water we would require if we chose to bring powdered formula. Concerning diapers and wipes, we brought an entire pack of wipes (96 wipes) and 40 diapers. My husband and I thought long and hard where our infant would be sleeping and in what and what we came up with was an inflatable infant sleeping pod/nest. This was hands down the best piece of baby camping gear we purchased and it was under $50 on Amazon.com! However an essential tip to remember with inflatables and camping – use a pump or compressor of some kind rather than manually blowing it up with the air inside your lungs. The air inside your lungs contain moisture and will cause your inflatable to be colder. We bought a few other essential baby camping items that were not so affordable, like fleece sleep-sacks and sub-zero beanies (heat will escape exponentially more than it would from anywhere else on their body). So that concludes the list of baby camping gear we brought with us – you really don’t need much!

     When taking an infant camping all you need is the bare essentials. Your baby does not require its own tent, sleeping bag, pillow, camp stove or whatever else you think you’ll need to survive. In fact, if you think about it – your infant is easier to travel with than a 5-year-old that whom has never camped before. If you start them out young then you train your kids to think logically and not to overthink things by packing things they really do not need. It teaches them to think ahead and prepare for situations that they need to handle on their own. Camping with an infant is an all-around perfect parenting tool to throw at your kids as young as you see fit. Get out there and camp with your infant and give them a leg up for their future!

First Camping Trip With 5 Week old Infant

Third camping trip with 8 week old infant 

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.