Tips for Camping with babies & toddlers

• Potatoes in the fire; More for older kids and adults….If you par-boil the potato’s first they will last a few days in the fridge and then wrap them in foil and finish cooking in the fire. Toppings are endless! Sometimes I’ll add the pre-made spag bowl or chop up a few things like tomato, bacon, tin corn and grated cheese with sauce and sour cream. Easy, filling and delicious.
• Prep ahead; usually breakfast time when camping is a quieter time. Everyone is happy to hang around for a bit before the adventures of the day start. Once brekkie is on, (and I have my coffee), I like to do a bit of food prep for the day ahead, so that I’m not constantly making food all day. I’ll pack Freya a lunch box for the day with her fruit, snacks, sandwich/wrap, yoghurt etc.. and cut up stuff for our lunch, so it’s ready to go.
• Finger food platter; I love this one for when we are camping with friends. The kids always pillage our cheese platter taking all the good stuff like little seagulls!. So, we came up with a plan. We all bring something to add to a ‘kids platter’. We make it fun and exciting – it must appeal & please. Things like carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, capsicum slices, cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes, dip, pretzels, strawberries, blueberries, popcorn, rice crackers, fruit kebabs, cabanossi, cut up muesli bars, tiny teddies, chips etc… It’s a funny thing when kids see other kids eating something they normally wouldn’t eat; they tend to be more inclined to try it too. They all love their little communal platter and the banter between them while they sit to eat and chat is just too cute.

• End of holiday damper; I have fond memories of camping with my Dad. On our last night, he would always make damper on the fire using up leftovers…one sweet and one savoury. The sweet one would have things like honey, sultanas, berries or fruit and a drizzle of port (naturally) and the savoury one things like cheese, bacon, garlic, herbs, even veggies like broccoli or potato…it’s a great way to use up leftovers. All you need is the base damper recipe and then add in the extras. We would snack on the leftovers on the way home.
• Sweet Treat; This is another memory close to my heart. Again, with my Dad and his friends who we used to catch up with sometimes. They made this special treat just for me, and I thought it was just the best thing EVER. All it was, was a hollowed-out orange (keep the lid) and some chocolate cake mix. They poured the cake mix into the orange about halfway popped the ‘lid’ on, wrapped in foil and put into the hot coals – Dig in with a spoon BEST ORANGE CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER! I’ve been planning on trying it with a brownie mix….mmmmm

Plastic tub for water play/bath

With a baby and then an ‘active’ toddler, we found the family rooms at caravan parks were a bit awkward. By the time we got everything together, waited for our turn AND made at least one trip back to get stuff we forgot – It was just a pain! We ended up getting an oval shallow plastic tub from Bunnings to use for baths and subsequently discovered it was perfect for water play at the van. This little plastic tub has honestly been one of the best things we have bought! Everything we needed for bath time was right there at the van and was so much quicker and easier. Then during the hottest part of the day when you don’t want to have them out and about, we would fill it with a bit of cool water and sit her in it under the awning with some bath toys, and she would happily splash around for ages! Third use….we chuck it in the boot on day trips for toys and wet sandy beach stuff.

Waterproof overalls

These are brilliant for crawlers and toddlers. I got mine from an Aussie company – raincoat https://www.rainkoat.com.au/collections/overalls they aren’t cheap ($50), BUT they are really well made and so worth it. I got a bigger size and had them for Freya when she was crawling, and now, she’s 2 ½, and they still fit fine, so I guess for $50 we have gotten full value out of them. Paired with gumboots, they are virtually impenetrable. Saves on multiple changes when they inevitably find those ‘muddy puddles’ (thanks Pepper!) or crawling around on wet grass, sand and dirt, especially when you are free camping with no washer.

Porta Cot/ Sleeping tips

When Freya was quite little, like not rolling yet, the sleeping arrangement was easy. But as she got older, we had to come up with ideas for where she could sleep safely in the van. There are heaps of options out there for travel cots online, but one tip we discovered with our Jayco Swan (and could work in other vans too) was that when the dining table was converted to a bed (without the cushions), the porta cot would sit perfectly on top of it. It was tricky getting her into it because it was higher off the ground BUT I got a folding step from Kmart and it helped perfectly! Now she is a bit older and the cot days are behind us…sigh….I still use the table that converts to a bed but use a bed rail – thanks again Kmart – and it works fine.

Then, there is the actual sleeping. The biggest realisation for me was that you kinda have to just ‘let go’ a bit when you are camping. We had a decent sleep routine happening at home, and I was worried about keeping it the same while away. But the thing is, it is different from home. They know it, you know it…the kids in the van next door who wake up 20 times a night to pee and slam the door know it! So, here’s what happened when I ‘let go’ of the routine (just a bit, cause let’s face it – some kids just need it). We let her run around past her usual ‘settle down time’, we may sometimes skip the bath till the next day, eat dinner on the run, go for that sunset walk around the park with the pram to wind down and, obviously reading her cues that she’s at that sweet spot between really tired and ‘I am now going to crack it!’ She ends up too tired to care that she’s in the van and everything is different. She’s too tired to keep up the usual stalling routine…she crashes. We do try to keep the same bedtime routine: book, milk, white noise, bed, so she knows what’s coming but my biggest tip? Don’t fight it; you won’t ruin your home routine – AND it’s your holiday too!…just chill and they will as well. (most of the time)

Day sleeps – Freya always struggles with her day sleeps when camping. She is used to a dark room, so it’s hard for her to settle. Enter the pram! If you have a baby/toddler who likes to nap in the pram, USE IT!! I got one of those battery fan clip things and a super light muslin and just made this my exercise time. Once she was out, I could park her up under the awning. It was never her usual long nap, but it was better than fighting her for an hour in a hot van and ending up with no nap. Alternately, we’d plan a scenic drive around for an hour or so, but this isn’t ideal for every day. Aaaannd then some days we had no nap, but that would usually mean an early night, so not that bad. Again, you just have to roll with it.

Wet Weather Contingency

Rainy days when camping happen, even in this great sunburned country of ours. Here are a couple of things we pack & some of the games we play.

• Waterproof overalls, as I mentioned above, are really helpful! Sometimes it’s nice to embrace the rain and pop them on with a rain jacket and go puddle hunting exploring.
• Hand towels/cloth nappies; Rather than packing extra bath/beach towels, I pack some extra hand towels or some of those old school cloth nappies. Great for a quick foot wipe or dry off or to pop onto the floor for muddy feet
• Playdough; I make my own…but either way, it’s a good one to have as a back up
• Nature art; This one is something the whole family can do. We take a basket and forage for sticks, leaves, flowers, gumnuts, shells – anything interesting like that. We like to talk about the items as we find them – how they feel, what they are called etc. Then back at camp we use some glue, string, sticky tape – anything really, to make a stick ‘frame’ and then glue all our treasure to it. We’ve also used some cardboard to make nature crowns and head garlands too.

Another brilliant idea I have seen people do for smaller babies is a hula hoop sensory circle –

Cold Nights; Even in the warmer months, nights and early mornings can be still quite cold. It’s a tricky one especially when it is still warm when you put the baby to bed. If you are camping with power, a small 3 bar oil heater is handy. You can pop it on for a bit before you go to bed to warm the van and then again in the early morning to take the chill out of the air. Ours has a timer which is brilliant! Otherwise, I would add an extra blanket just before I go to bed and then during the night, check and inevitably ‘re-cover’ the kicked off blanket. Then when nights and mornings were really cold, I’d ‘re-locate’ hubby to the other bed and co-sleep to keep her warm.

So that’s just a couple of tips based on my personal experience of camping with a baby and toddler. I hope it helps someone’s camping experience be a little smoother, more relaxing, and enjoyable.