Frozen - Advice needed

[Romily]

Well went on our second camping trip and it was a total disaster. Even with what I thought was careful planing we were freezing and had to come home. Now I am dreading a trip we had planned for two weeks time.

In the bedrooms we had blankets down then the air bed with blanket topper, sheet, then us with a duvet and blankets on the top. We had thermals and then fleece PJs on top. Beds were heated with hot water bottles and we were shivering within the hour.

I could have coped however my 7 month old who had a vest, sleep suit, fleecy PJs, baby sleep bag, hat, gloves and blankets was also cold so we all came home.

What do we do now? We love camping and want to be able to camp more often than just July!

Do we get SIMs, sleeping bags, better thermals???? Please help as we were sooooooo cold!

When dd was a baby the best thing was the grobag sleeping bags.

When dd was a baby the best thing was the grobag sleeping bags.

When dd was a baby the best thing was the grobag sleeping bags.

I am a DofE leader and one of our expeditions was in the March of the snow (last year? Year before?) One of my colleagues (ex-army) loaned me his army sleeping bag which was similar to this:

sleeping bag

I put my bag inside his and it was the warmest night's sleep ever But I do get very cold very easily...

We always take our king size down duvet and sleep naked Apparently there's truth in the "as few clothes as possible" adage :o

When camping as a family I use a reflective blanket on the floor, air bed on top, fleece blanket on top then a sheet- I have never been freezing :)

We camped this weekend. I used to always freeze and hated camping, so now use this approach:
Self inflating mattresses - thermarest or alpkit (I have the thickest one they do called the fat airic/dozer, which is far better than I thought it would be)
Fleece blanket over this (cheap ones from ikea etc for a couple of pounds)
Sleeping bag
A couple of spare fleece blankets and a duvet just in case (hardly used, usually only for the first hour then thrown off as too hot).

We dressed our 4 year old in fleece pjs and a onesie and he was fine too.

Mountain warehouse have a sale on if you want new sleeping bags.

Our dcs have a readybed (argos) on top of a cheap fleece, then a fleece sleeping bag liner and pjs. They've never complained of being cold. Definitely try to get kids a fleece sleeping bad liner! Ours are ancient ones from Lidl I think they were, but we had some zipped snuggle blanket things from Primark too until they got outgrown. They were only £3 each but brilliant so worth keeping an eye out for.

I have had a look at sleeping bags and I am going to get some for us so now I need to turn my thoughts to my baby as he was cold too.

When we go he will be 8 months and on the last trip he had on a vest, sleep suit, fleecy PJs and was in a 2.5tog sleep sack with a cardigan on top all finished off with fleece hat and mittens. However he was still cold so what other approach could I take to keep him warm? We will not co-sleep so that is not an option.

We camped last week as well and were actually warmer than previous trips. I attribute this entirely to our new SIMs. MASSIVE difference, cannot recommend enough after years sleeping on an airbed filled with freezing cold air

An extra layer for the little one could be a snow suit - they're fab (wish they had them in my size ;-))

Which SIMS did you use?

The snow suit could be the way to go!

We used alpkit sims - can't fault them!

A double vango 7.5cm and two 5cm vango singles for the DCs.

Also putting PJs on under clothes before dinner and wearing about five more layers than you think you'll need.

Toasty!