OK campers, I need your advice, I have never camped before, if I camped on my own with my 6 yrd old, would I want to kill her (or me) by day 2? Convince me it's fun, please!!

[Aimsmum]

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I love camping. My husband and I camp on most holidays and have been to Portugal, France, Spain, Scotland and Cornwall.

Make sure you've got a good gas stove and cooking equipment.

I also recommend thermarest self-inflating mattresses. They're really slim and warm.

DS is only 5 weeks old and I can't wait to get a new and bigger tent so we can take him camping in the summer.

Any tips on camping with a young baby?

Had to have my say on this one about taking small babies camping. We've been camping for years. I have 3 children, 5, nearly 3 and 7 months. We took our second when she was 4 months to Cornwall. Our third we took when he was 1 1/2 days old!!!! I was induced on the Friday morning, he was born at 2.15pm and on the Saturday night off we went to Cornwall. It was brill. Cold water sterilzer, lots of warm covers, and that's about it, and if you're bottle feeding (which I was) a big kettle so you can boil loads of water and fill up loads of bottles. As long as they're warm enough babies just mostly sleep anyway. HAve fun

love camping-take snack food in case its raining and you can't light the disposable barbecue/ stove (never have them in the tent!)
best bits - chatting to youngers ones and sharing funny stories with them when you were younger- esp as no TV,mobiles, gameboy etc so you have to listen to them and they to you.

fresh air. thinking night bathing is a good idea. being impressed with the showers at campsites. meeting really nice people....good luck and have loads of fun

If it is your first time camping then it might be worth going to a properly set up campsite rather than the basic field with a toilet type. But if you are going to do this, check out the campsite first to make sure they do have good facilities for people in tents. A lot of the larger sites are mainly geared up for caravans and campervans which generally have their own toilets, cookers and fridges. Also, you don't want to be stuck on the edge of a field of rows and and rows of metal boxes - it's just not fun. As to camping with a young baby - I agree with Chiggles that you don't need much as they tend to just sleep. But do remember, that even in really hot weather, it can get very cold at night (a baby sleeping bag is handy to make sure they don't throw off all the covers) and the tent can get scorching hot first thing in the morning. If you are able to, try to pitch your tent where you will get the evening sun and not the morning sun so you can stay up longer and don't get woken by baking heat. If you camp by the sea, don't leave ANYTHING out that seagulls can remotely get to, as they will cause havoc and they are SOOOoooo noisy as i found out last year.

There's a fantastic campsite at Porth in Cornwall. Don't know if I can say it so I haven't. Free showers. brilliant toilets, own wash cubicles, across the road from the beach and family pub and very expensive shop and 'bistro' 15 mins walk from Newquay. We've been going for about 10 years. Lovely people who run it too. Families and couples only. Love it!!!!

PS. I think the knack to camping with young children is not to try the 'home routine', let them tire themselves out and decide on bed. It works for us, sometimes it's late, but it saves alot of screaming children. Just go with the flow. (within reason) and lots of wine!!!!!!! (you, not the children!!) It fantastic!! and that's with 3.

chiggles of course you can say what campsite it is, it isn't advertising, it's helping oithers

Chiggles. Wine - yes definitely lots of wine. A red wine box is always good as it does not need to be kept cool and there is no risk of knocking the bottle open. If white wine is preferred, then you can take the bag out of the wine box and stick it in the freezer for fantastically cool wine on arrival after a long journey.