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This article is from the Outdoor Activities for Young Children FAQ, by Gloria Logan glogan@atk.com with numerous contributions by others.

19 GENERAL CAMPING: Twilderness canoe camping with kids

Right. This is *not* my very long, wilderness canoe camping with kids
under <insert Marc's current age here, 6 in 1992> posting. This is
car camping with a child under 1. And with a parent who has the basic
food, diaper, and sleeping stuff worked out (don't forget your
breasts! :-) ). [*** for discussion of Kate's canoe trip, see CANOEING]

Take the stroller, if it's a lie-flat type. Great for evening strolls,
though most strollers don't do beaches well, they do fine on the gravel
roads of most car-camping places. The baby may even fall asleep in the
fresh air.

Take a Moses basket for a child who can't pull herself up to sit and
who doesn't normally sleep with you. No-one can roll onto her, she
can't roll under you, the walls of the basket may make her feel a
little more secure, etc etc. Kathy and Aimee ended up sleeping in the
back of the station wagon, though.

Take a Snugli and (try this! it works!) put that mosquito netting you
brought for the playpen over parent and baby both while the baby is in
the Snugli. This is also a way to nurse outside without being bitten
(at least by bugs :-) ).

Take a big blanket or quilt for the child to sit/crawl on at the
campsite, beach, etc etc. If you have a sand eater, Vaseline on the
bum after every change is said to make it easier to clean off -- I
have never tried it. Er, you see the only problem with eating sand,
at least sand you can be sure is free of cat poop, is that it comes
right through and is murder to clean off the bum. Beth ate primarily
dirt, which does not come through.

Get your kid a lifejacket! Even if the smallest lifejackets fit 20-30
lb and yours is ten lb, put them in the too-big one and make it fit
somehow. This is a MUST if you are going on any boats at all. Beth
wore a 20-30lb lifejacket at 5 weeks and 11 lbs when she went in our
canoe for the first time.

Fun toys you never thought of as toys: a tarp strung over the picnic
table is a slide for stuffed animals -- this kept Beth, 9 weeks, and
Aimee, 6 months, happy for AGES. Of course it was Marc, 3.5 doing the
constant stuffed-animal flinging... Sticks, rocks, leaves, etc are
all big hits (though random leaves should probably *not* be allowed
in the mouth).

If you use pacifiers, get a pacifier bib, you do *not* want to be
washing sand and dirt off every time it is dropped.
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children, child, kid, Outdoor Activities, backpacking, ski, canoeing, biking, camping, trailer