Camping with an infant: Campground vs. Dispersed

[brettyb]

I'm planning our first (tent) camping trip since having a baby. The baby will be ten months at the time, and for now is not ambulatory. I'm a bit torn between camping in a campground and dispersed camping. A CG would have conveniences of course, but I'm afraid of having her cry and disturb everyone (as I type this she is screaming in protest of being put to bed). I'm assuming public lands camping, of course, not KOA type. Any thoughts?

Any other suggestions in general? Our tent is a two person Marmot, backpackable type, so we'd be able to squeeze her in fairly comfortably we think. We envision her sleeping between us, partially inside our sleeping bags, and maybe with a blanket of her own.

Thanks for any advice...

[marc olivares]

here's a couple tips i've learned from experience (i have a 2 and 5 yr old)

do a "practice" camp out in the backyard first
let them get the hang of being in a tent and bag before you go.
second, get them their own bag.
the first time we took our youngest out (lily lake area, uintas) she screamed for an hour, because she did not want to sleep in our bags w/ us. my little boy(5) loved sleeping in one big bag. little girl hated it.
we had to put her in a make shift bag (pillow case w/ some jackets) to get her to calm down. once she was solo she was fine.
BUT... had we known that before we went up, the other people camping near us would have had a more pleasant and peaceful experience.
nothing like the silence of the High Uintas, broken by the screams of a 6 month old.
good luck, my kids are great now, and prefer to be back country even more than i do. :2thumbs:

[icthys]

My girl is 16 months and we have had a few challenges. The first and biggest problem we have is she absolutely can't stand having a blanket or sleeping bag covering her. She has to be free roaming. This is a problem because it gets much colder up camping than it does at home in her own bed. We've mostly solved this problem by putting her in her snow suit to keep warm.

Second, we've had problems with her not sleeping well at all camping. We could never figure out what the problem was. For awhile I thought she had problems with the altitude but she was always ok during the day. Then I figured she was cold. I also thought she was having so much fun camping she didn't want to sleep. I think we have finally figured out what the deal is. She would always fall asleep before we were ready for bed sitting around the camp fire. Once she fell asleep we'd go put her to bed and go back to sitting around the fire. It was sure as the sun comes up that she would wake up before we went to bed and would need us to come put her back to sleep. For the rest of the night she would keep getting up. One night my wife went straight to bed with her and she slept perfectly all though the night. We figure she would wake up and find herself in a completely differrent place than her bedroom and would freak out and be uncomfortable all night. Once my wife just went to bed with her she had something familiar with her.

Just try and make them as comfortable as possible especially during the night. Their own sleeping bag is a good idea, we've got one but she doesn't like it, sooner or later she'll dig having her own bag. Keep a bottle handy, I've got a single butane burner stove to warm it up easily in the middle of the night if we need it. If they have a favorite blanker or stuffed animal take it with you. Read a book if that is what you do at home.

[Alex]

My observations are similiar to itchys. Making them as comfirtable as possible did the trick for us. I tried to get my son involved in building the camp and tent. He carried some gear out of the truck, helped me bring up the tent, build a fire and then I brought some toys for him to play in the tent before we put all the sleeping bags into it.

I did buy a coleman double sleeping bag so all three of us would sleep together, but I know a lot of people do not like to do that. I still let my kid sleep with us, yes I know it's weird :roll:

Make it fun for them, let them get dirty in the sand, chase the bugs around, bring sticks they found into the tent and make the camping an exciting occasion for them. I have seen quite a few camping spots with kids just sitting around picking their noses. That's not what camping is all about. There are zillion of bugs to catch, sand castles to build or play pretend space ship (tent)...dads always make great aliens :haha:

I would stick away from the crowds for the few times at first. Bring all the gear you'd need to stay comfirtable, but then if your girl does cry at night, at least you would calm her down peacefully without going into stress of waking your neighboors. Luckily we live in Utah, plenty of wilderness around.

Also, my kid can't stand being covered either. He kicks all his sleeping bags and blinkets off. If you all sleep in a small tent, your body temperature and breathing would warm the air up enough to stay warm. If not, you might want to look at something like this: http://tentheater.com (local company).

[Scott P]

I'm a bit torn between camping in a campground and dispersed camping.

The backyard might be a good place to start for practice. Anyway, there are some campground which only have five or six sights which might do. Otherwise there is nothing wrong with dispersed camping.


A CG would have conveniences of course, but I'm afraid of having her cry and disturb everyone (as I type this she is screaming in protest of being put to bed)

Luckily we never had that problem when camping. The children were way to excited to sleep in the tent to complain, though it was often tough to get them actually to go to sleep.


We envision her sleeping between us, partially inside our sleeping bags, and maybe with a blanket of her own.

When our children were very young, we had two fairly large sleeping bags we would zip together and use as a big blanket over all of us. Having their own sleeping bag was a worry, especially when we were camping with them in mid winter. Children under one always seem to wiggle out of the bag.

To sum it up, take heart. By the time our son was two, he had months of camping experience over eight countries. None of this was regretted, and all were great experiences. Our daughter loves it as well, but it

[Shan]

Look at all the awesome photos!

I am not a parent myself, but I think that great you get out with the wee babes.

Go for the dispersed camping. Think about all those pioneers that crossed the plains with babies!

[icthys]

Here's a few of mine.

[Shan]

Ack! Too much cuteness!

They get pretty dirty, I'd imagine?

[Alex]

They get pretty dirty, I'd imagine?

Why else would you go camping!!! :roflol:
That's why you bring lots and lots of baby wipes, they are worth more than gold while camping!

[Shan]

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0071373608.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

"Scraping Heaven" is about a family with 2 young toddlers that did the Continental Divide trail. They did it with llamas and in sections, not continuously. But they go over how they washed clothed diapers at 13,000 feet in a bucket, kids pickiness about food, and the mental breakdowns and how she started to hate her spouse. Ha! :lol8:

[Scott P]

That's why you bring lots and lots of baby wipes, they are worth more than gold while camping!

Just make sure you keep them in the sleeping bag when backpacking in winter! You want to hear a kid scream? Just try frozen baby wipes in the morning! :naughty:

[marc olivares]

if you give em' a few beers, they just roll w/ the punches

fishlake primative camping

no he didnt drink the beer, he was just putting pebbles in the bottle. but he does look like he's a little sauced :D

[Shan]

Yeah, that's dirty.

[Alex]

Hey at least you are drinking the good beer! (My favorite) :five: :cheers:

[brettyb]

Thanks so much for the advice! It helps immensely. It actually inspired me to try to camp more on our planned weeklong trip, and get a room less often. It's just so tempting to take the easy way out sometimes...

The specific destinations I'm thinking of are the Green River Lakes area on the west side of the Wind Rivers, and the Granite Pass area of the Bighorn Mountains. Anybody here have any firsthand experience in these areas, specifically with camping and day hikes?

[Scott P]

Don't know about Granite Pass, but count on millions of mosqitoes around Green River Lakes until after mid-August.

[Shan]

but count on millions of mosqitoes around Green River Lakes until after mid-August.

Ditto this. I've been in June, July and August, and by far late August was the best weather/bug wise. Didn't even use repellent in August. They were bad in July unless there was a good breeze and you were walking into the breeze!

That is probably my favorite spot done as a canoe trip.

[Wasatch Rebel]

We took our daughter camping for the first time at two months. I don't remember her crying a whole bunch, but it was real inconvenient for my wife who had to nurse her. But that was 24 years ago. What do I know?

[Wild One]

Yeah, this is an old thread, but suddenly I find myself wondering the same things. My wife and I just had a little boy, he's like 3.5 weeks old and I haven't been backpacking or even camping in well...like 4 months. (I made my wife go to the Swell with me, like 6 months pregnant and don't think I'll ever live that one down). But I'm going crazy, I have to get out and really want to take Brightyn (my kid) but do you guys think it's too early? I mean he's almost a month old isn't that good enough?

[accadacca]

Well I think your kid would survive fine...but yer wife might be another story. :haha:

[brettyb]

This is the OP again. For what it's worth, we did end up going, but our plans changed substantially from what I had inquired about (thanks for all the advice though). We went last weekend, and car camped two nights at the Green River CG in Dinosaur National Monument. Not the best choice for August in retrospect, but we didn't want to drive quite as far as, say, the Winds, or Bryce, etc.

In brief, our two person tent proved to be very cramped with the baby, who rolls and tosses a lot in her sleep. The second night there were multiple spells of thunder and lightning, which freaked Mom & Dad out, but baby slept through. We packed up to the car on two different occasions b/c of the weather, which is kind of absurd in retrospect, but we felt very vulnerable at the time. B/C of the weather, I had to put the rain fly on the tent, so it got quite stuffy inside. After a largely sleepless night, we got a cabin at the KOA Vernal for the third night.

I think Dinosaur is a greatly underrated destination. We drove the Harpers Corner drive for the first time this visit, and the view from the end of the Harpers Corner Trail is just phenomenal. And very few people. We also visited the McConkie Ranch petroglyphs, which are just awesome, on par with the best I've seen in Horseshoe Canyon or Sego Canyon. Vernal sure seems to be thriving with the energy price boom, but boy is it redneck-y; scads of huge pickup trucks everywhere.

[Maya]

I've gone camping with a lot of babies... (seems it is baby season among my friend group... even regional Burning Mans, yikes!).

What I have noticed is that the couples who strictly maintain their child's schedule (feeding/bath/sleep) failed and that the couples that let the experience and cues from their baby of when the child was ready to do anything had a MUCH better time of it (and a much happier baby).