Essentials for camping with a 1 year old

[doozeldog]

Hi,
just as the title says really, we are going wales for 4 days camping for the first time with our 1 year old in august.
Just wondering what kind of camping essentials we may need??

Do I take a travel cot? Or will he sleep with us? Anything else special that you can think of that we need?

As you can tell I haven't got a clue lol

You need to take some very low expectations. Particularly, any expectations of your child sleeping in a tent whilst it is still light outside.

DD slept in a ReadyBed when we took her camping age about 18 months. And we had a kiddy size collapsible director's chair thing. Crocs are handy too.

Ikea Antilop highchair is great with a baby that age, if you've got the room. Obviously it's fine to just sit them on the floor or in the pushchair if that's easier.

An essential for me is a bucket/portable toilet for night time wees, but I'm a lone parent so can't leave mine in the tent on their own when I traipse to the toilet block at 3am.

Fleece sleepsuits for night time.

Something to bath them in is handy, like a large trug bucket, or something similar. Some sites have family bathrooms with a bath though which makes things a lot easier.

Can you do a test run for one night somewhere close by, camping kit is a fairly individual thing and it can help you work out what you need.

Snacks and clothes - think of a normal day and double it. Dd3 went through 6 sets of clothes (and my standards are low) on the first day of camping aged 1.

A lightweight all in one waterproof suit. It protects the clothes amd can be sponged down. Makes crawling around easier!

Toys - we found an aqua mat fab for entertainment with little mess.

Charged tablet with downloaded TV and a car charger. Makes the 6 a.m. wake ups bareable!

We love camping :-) my youngest was 6 weeks old on her first trip. Low expectations do help

Nappies ....... only half joking.

I witnessed a toddler having a poo in the barked play area at the NT Langdale site this weekend, his charming mother left it there, scooped him up and never came back.

The staff actually cleaned it up after DH pointed it out, sadly I am serious.

We had a pop up travel cot at that age, that was about it additional gear wise.

Yy to waterproof suit!

Loads of bin liners.

If there is a laundry, take some washing tabs and some pegs.

We went camping when my son was almost 1, we had a camping cot which was good but we also took a standard travel cot to use when we didn't want him crawling in mud or into someone else's tent! An all in one puddlesuit!