Advice for camping with a two year old

[poppy34]

Having had my arm twisted by dh am off camping for first time in 25 years next week with 2 yr old dd.

Nice campsite in France with pool etc but wondering if you had any tips for camping with toddler. In particular she is a keen little thing about exploring so what are good tips for securing zip so she can't nip off at bedtime .

Don't know about securing the zip but I do know someone who put a bell on the zip so she would hear it if the child tried to escape.

dog lead..........:) A bell is a very good idea.

relax about bedtime, you can't lock them in. let her stay up until she collapses.

We were in France in July and we changed our routine, we have 3dc(5,3 and 1)generally because it was cool in the evenings so the kids went to bed later.The play park was too hot in the day so after dinner we would venture up to it and let them be free to run around! It is difficult keeping a vigilant eye at all times....

Agree with cerealoffender - we have camped for 4 yrs now with our DD (nearly 5) and we let her wear herself out, sometimes she falls asleep on my lap by the BBQ in PJs and a blanket, other times we stick to normal routine, into sleeping bag, lights low, bedtime story - once she is asleep she rarely wakes up unless it is really chilly or noisy.

My Dad used to peg the ends of the zips down at an awkward angel so we couldn't pull them out (as a security thing really). There was always the other part of the zip at the top of the door (IYKWIM) so they could always get out easily in an emergency though.

Can you take a travel cot with you for the 2yo?

yes, all have dinner at 6ish then let them run themselves to sleep

this is the time to flex routines if you want to - this summer dd (2.10) had dinner, bath then running around, then stories and bed
worked v well

we also took her tricylce which makes a lot of noise so was easier to keep track of than her on foot, iyswm.

or put the bell on her

Probably a really obvious one that you've already ruled out, but can you zip to the top of the pod rather than the bottom?

We zip the pods upwards rather than downwards so my 3yo can't reach the zips to undo.

Thanks for tips at dog lead and bell idea ( but nit completely silly. I think later bedtime good idea as does make things easier - will investigate Zipping up not down.

we used to do the zip up thing but dd would hurl herself at the door so we gave up on that!