Camping with a baby
A few weekends ago, my husband and I took our 8 month old daughter camping to Galiano island. This was her first time camping outside the womb, and our first time going camping with a baby! We were (understandably) nervous to forget anything she might need, and so I wanted to write this post to help guide fellow campers along their outdoor adventures with their little one.
Some caveats
We car camp. There is no hiking in, there is running water, there are outhouses with real seats, TP, and hand sanitizer kept stocked by rangers. We have outlets to charge our phones. It is a pretty comfortable affair. We also breastfeed and use disposable diapers, both of which makes our lives a little easier. Our friends also bring all the cooking gear, so we didn’t need to bring our own stove or any pots and pans of any kind. Keep this in mind if you’re going solo!
The basics
- tent
- air mattress
- sleeping bag
- comforter (or puff, as my east coast husband and his maritimer pals would call it)
- pillows (we forgot these somehow)
- tarp
- rope to hang tarp
- beach blanket
- hammock
- cooler and ice
- snacks and brews
Stuff for the baby specifically
- First aid kit (benadryl, tylenol, nasal aspirator, sunscreen, nail clippers)
- formula and bottles (although she’s mostly breastfed, the extra bottle at night helps her sleep longer and get some iron)
- wagon (we just bought this awesome wagon from costco)
- pack-n-play (our six-man tent is big enough that we could have it fully set up)
- warm sleep sack 2.5tog (even though it was June when we camped, the overnight low was still around 12 degrees celsius)
- ergo baby carrier
- rain jacket
- fleecy onesie to sleep in
- 3 long sleeve onesies
- 3 short sleeve onesies
- fleecy jacket
- puffy vest
- 5 pairs of pants
- toque and sunhat
- diaper bag (filled with extra diapers, wipes, and her waterproof change mat)
- large playmat
- a towel
- bowl, mug, cup, and cutlery (which is almost useless since she prefers to eat what we feed her with our fingers)
- baby camping chair
- extra garbage bags for wet clothes and diapers
- lots of books and toys!
What we forgot
- extra washcloths for her (we ended up just using her regular baby wipes to clean her face after she ate)
- pillows! not for her but for us
- our external charger. we had to turn on our car every time we wanted to juice up our phones
- extra nice pegs. we had the ones that came with our tent, but the hard gravel on the campsites made it difficult to get our fly up properly. Fortunately our pals had a few extra.
I even tried to run my group classes on the island but unfortunately the internet was too unstable and I had to cancel for the weekend. I think we did pretty well for our first time. Is there anything you’d bring that we missed? Did you find this helpful? I’d love to hear from you! Thank you for reading.
Photo Credits: Leah Villalobos
Cindy Ross-Miller
July 7, 2020
Love this! Looks like everyone had a wonderful time. I have a friend who is delivering any day, they love to camp. I will definitely share this with her.
You guys are such a beautiful family xo Cindy & Fraser 💕
Pamela
July 8, 2020
Thank you so much! We did have a wonderful time; it was so nice to get away from the city for a few nights.
Hope you guys are well and we’re so sorry we can’t be there this summer!
Kelly Poole
July 9, 2020
We have a sun shelter that is great for the beach and camping with a little one, and don’t forget the kid friendly bug spray! Mosquitoes are getting bad this year