Camping with Baby Series- Blog Post #5

Breastfeeding:

Breastfeeding is super easy during camping because there’s no food/formula storage or preparation. Everything’s on tap! You can breastfeed anywhere, even while hiking. At night, I snuggled baby up close to me to nurse and then placed her back in her sleeping space after she was finished. To make sure I kept my body warm, I wore a tank top and a long sleeved shirt to bed. That way, I could lift the long sleeve shirt up and the tank down slightly but my stomach stayed completely covered during a nursing session.

Babywearing:

I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll mention it a thousand times; baby wearing is a must when camping! No need to go all out with a Kelty backpack style carrier, especially when your baby is small. I just used what I had, which was a Boba Wrap or a Boba 4GS Carrier. I quickly learned to be mindful of how I layer my own clothes so I wouldn’t have to take baby out of the carrier mid-hike to add or take off clothing. This was avoided by a good base layer underneath the carrier, and then my jacket unzipped outside of it. 

Cloth Diapering:

Cloth Diapering is surprisingly easy when camping and totally possible! To figure out how many to bring, we counted how many we typically go through in a day and added 2-3 extras per day. 

For general campsite camping, we would just bring our All-In-One diapers and layer them with Grovia Bioliners. After a poopy diaper, you can throw the bioliners away in the campsite garbage, no poopy diapers to spray out when you get home! We’d keep the dirty diapers in our Thirsties Wetbags, and store them in the car at night. For a nighttime change, we’d have clean diapers, wipes, and a wetbag ready to go in the tent. Pre-wetted wipes can get really cold at night, so putting the container in your sleeping bag with you can help keep them warmer. 

For more remote camping, we’d take Thirsties Duo Wraps and line them with Grovia Biosoakers (without peeling the adhesive sticker off). Duo wraps are space saving, can be used multiple times as long as they don’t get poop on them, and are easy to rinse and quick dry. The biosoakers are then easily thrown away after use. If we didn’t have a trash can available, we’d store the used liners or soakers in airtight bags and pack them out. Sometimes, we chose to bring scent free disposable wipes. Other times, we bring pre soaked cloth wipes in a tupperware container. 

Remember, you can get creative on how you cultivate a smooth camping trip. There isn’t any one way to do things! I hope my experiences have shown that camping with a baby is an attainable goal if your family shares a love of the outdoors. You can do it! 

Happy camping, 

Sharon