Backpacking w/ Baby

“I'm a single, 22 year old mother of a 7 month baby girl. I am just beginning backpacking this year. I have a very slender, slight build but I am interested in taking my daughter on some trips with myself and experienced friends. My question is: Does anybody out there have good advice about baby's safety, food prep., length of trip or advice about my comfort while packing her? Any info. or book recomends would be much appreciated!”

“ask joy and birch.

joy started the 'share your bed' thread, about her daughter.”

“Oh Newgirl, I'd love to write a nice long post about this but Abby's calling my name...it'll have to wait until after I get back from work! Do you have a kid carrier pack yet?”

“I tried some on for size this weekend. I found a Kelty one that seemed just right and had a decent price. I also own a Snuggli, but that isn't really meant for backpacking (I don't think) and it kills my back after about an hour. Right now she weighs 17 lbs. I think I can comfortably carry her in a well-made pack up to 30 lbs. I would love info. about her safety and food prep. as well. Thanks!”

“do they make little helmets?

that would be a long fall, for them, if you tripped.

these are the things i think about. no wonder i'm waiting to have kids.”

“I think I would worry about bug bites and ticks and such.”

“I took a dayhike last summer in Mt. Rainier and saw a family hiking with a baby in a child carrier backpack and the poor little guy had fallen asleep. Every step dad took, his head would knock against the frame! I told them about it, but who knows how long that had been going on. Maybe a helmet is a good idea!”

“Yes, they do make helmets and I plan to invest in one. I am also worried about bug bites and ticks. Any suggestions on what to do to help defend the little one from little attackers? Sounds to me like you are perfectly capable of caring for a child, Lounge Lizard. You thought of a an important piece of protective gear.”

“i would have a hard time forgiving myself if i fell and hurt (or worse) my child.”

“I just wrote a message, but for some reason it didn't post. Arrrgh! Anyway, let's try again. Lounge Lizard, they do make helmets and I am planning to get one. Good suggestion, sounds like you'd be a great parent. I am concerned about ticks, etc. What can I use to defend the little one from the little attackers?”

“Everybody seems to be pretty down on taking a baby. I enjoy the outdoors and now that I am exploring backpacking I would like my daughter to have the chance to learn w/ me. Is there anyone out there who thinks this could be a positive experience?”

“of course!

i'm actually interested in this because i absolutly plan on doing the same thing.

i gotta grow me another good hiking partner!”

“They seem pretty easy to "grow," Lounge Lizard. Just be certain that you want it. I'm glad to hear that someone thinks this will be a good experience. I know it could be a chance for my daughter and I to really connect, but I want to try and take into account all the possiblities. Her well-being is of supreme concern!”

“Joy, when you get back I am really interested in food prep. right now. I am no longer breast feeding. This means packing bottles, she takes around 6, 6oz. ones a day. Plus, she eats about 3 small jars of processed baby food a day (beans, squash, peaches, etc.). Now that I am considering this recreation and how much weight I have to carry I realize that I should have stuck w/ the breast a little longer. Ha-Ha-Ha, hindsight is twenty-twenty! Thanks, Joy!”

“I've been taking my grand daughter in a Kelty child carrier since last spring shortly after she turned one. We haven't backpacked yet, just dayhiked. This past Saturday my brother, his girlfried and I took her hiking on her first little mountain. Since she's 2 now, the plan was for her to walk at her own pace and take in the sights and we'd catch the others on their way back down. As soon as the others started getting ahead of us, she called out "guys - back!" she wanted to stay with the group. We put her in the pack and took turns carrying her, while she first slept, then chatted about the birds and the trees. She loved the views and climbed all over the rocks on the peak.

I did buy a bike helmet the same time I got her carrier but I've only made her wear it once. It is a good idea, but we've fallen twice carrying her and it's never phased her - she's never touched the ground. They're pretty well strapped in those packs. I also think there's a better chance that they'll injur an arm or leg rather than their head, just like when we fall.

A couple of things though - there is not enough room in that little detachable napsack for much of anything, plus since the the child is just sitting while you're moving, she's gonna be cooler. My grand daughter gets a kick out of my camelbaks, so I give her the hose and she sips the whole way.”

“I have carried both my kid for miles on day hikes on all kinds of terrain. Never occured to me to get a helmet for them! Maybe for me when they got to hairpulling and banging. We have picutres of our oldest on the beach when it was 20 degrees and blowing, he was wearing two hats.

When they get bigger (ie over the top of your head while sitting inthe carrier) you got watch out for low hanging branches!! Done that more than once!

It would be hard to carry a kid AND to pack in YOUR stuff and THEIR stuff all in one fell swoop. That is why i have steered clear of backpacking.

THe was a couple on this site who did so, and conducted extensive threads on it . .was a ajgoodkids or something like that???”

“Hi Newgirl:
I recently picked up a book called "Hiking and Backpacking with Children" or something like that - It has a lot of good info about children and how to tend to their needs and capabilities.

I could get you name of the author and publisher if you are interested ...”

“Yes it is the goodkids. They have twins and I think they are six years old now. They took both of them when they were pretty small. I have seen some really good discussions on this topic at one time or another on every backpack group there is.”

“Wow, what a bunch of helpful, nice people. I'll search for the goodkids threads. Lee, I will have two (maybe three) friends w/ me everytime I do this, so we plan to share the load of all my stuff and baby's stuff. I'm guessing that an overnight trip will be plenty to start. I am interested in the book, Hangman, if there is info. about babies and not just young children.”

“"helpful, nice people"???

did you read any of the other threads on this forum??? LOL!!!!”

“Last Fourth of July weekend I pulled three deer ticks off of my little boy and two off of myself. The wife didn?t get any.

The only effective tick repellant is DEET (contrary to what others may tell you here). DEET is nasty stuff, and I would not recommend putting it on a little seven month old baby. I?d say strip the baby naked and check her a couple of times each day in the light if ticks are plentiful in the area.

I agree that what you're describing will be a positive experience.”

“I did read some other stuff Lounge and you seem to be quite the talker. By the way, although totally off the subject, I would have to agree w/ some of what you said on "When it comes to men . . .". While I don't agree that one must live inside a narrowly defined box, I think that women should have certain "jobs." Everything would run more smoothly if everyone on the team had a designated task (i.e. cooking, cleaning). Same goes for men (i.e. car repair, lawn mowing, pleasing the women).”

“wow!

jen (my wife) and i agree with that 100%!

i do my house/yard stuff. and she does her house stuff. we each chose the jobs that we liked doing, and bargained with the jobs that we didn't.

she admits that i frequently get the harder jobs, but she DEFINATELY makes up for it, usually by doing one of my jobs that i can't do, when i've had surgery.

it feels good when you're working as a team, and not b!tchin' about who has to do what.


i hope we have this worked out as well, when we have a kid. i guess that i need to carry an extra-large part of the load to make up for that childbirth thing. ugh!”

“Thanks Ken. You hit the nail on the head, I am worried about putting any nasty chemicals on her new skin. I think that doing frequent checks is probably the best idea.”

“by the way, i meant that we agreed with your statement, not my post on the other thread! LOL!!!!”

“Newgirl, I am Joys hubby (rad stills calls me birch FYI). Anyway, I just got back from a two mile walk with my not yet 4 month old daughter(15 lbs) plus our dogs. I carried her in our Kelty Kids Karrier, I think we have the expedition model. It is cheap but worth it. She does well. We are gettin her ready for her first overnighter in two wks. Hopefully I didnt steal Joys thunder...:^)”

“Hyperpacker, that is wonderful. How are you guys planning to handle the food deal? I am really curious to learn how people handle this. I have 3 very supportive, helping friends, but I would appreciate advice that doesn't depend on my having a partner (father) w/ me. They are very good friends, but the primary job of caring for her on these trips depends on me.”

“Lounge, I don't necessarily think that you need to take on any extra-huge responsibilities in trade for childbirth. Just be good to her and appreciate how amazing her body is to be able to do that & help raise your baby. You and your wife seem like great people.”

“I have a 14 month old that we've taken car camping several times. We haven't done the backpacking thing yet, wife's not intuit. We were able to take milk in an insulated container and use powdered formula. Unfortunatly, the milk won't last all that long in the insulated container. For the babyfood use the half size containers, that way there is no waste. There is a thread titled Adventures. I have a post there about what NOT to do on a camping trip with a child. Enjoy.”

“they not only SEEM like great people....they ARE....


for food prep, have you seen the baby food grinders? I used one years ago with my son, i never bought baby food in a bottle, i would just puree food from whatever meal I cooked........
....it is small(probably smaller than a water purifier) and is easily cleaned and requires no batteries......and you can feed right out of the bowl that the food gets pureed into...
anyway, might be lighter and less bulky than carrying a bunch of bottles of food....
checking for ticks at diaper change time and removing them and cleaning the bite is a good idea.....transmission of tick saliva actually takes a few hours...so check and remove often....”

“Again, thanks everyone! This is the best information I have found so far.”

“Are you on crack????
"Nice people"???? This is the Insane-a-silum.

I'm so shocked that no one posted some thing sick on the "breast feeding" part of her post. See Newgirl, you have to be carefull for what you post, any thing can be minupulated here (its so much fun) there are a few sick minded people on this bored.

Here is a link to the Newbies guide.http://www.csupomona.edu/~rosenkrantz/personal/newbiesguide.htm

Welcome to the funny farm.”

“Hey newgirl, do they still make dehydrated baby food? When my kids were babies, they used to have cereal, fruit, veggies, etc., dried into flakes and all I had to do was add water. I think Heinz made it but boy was that a long time ago, my memory is not that good. You could pack it in Ziploc bags & just write in Magic Marker what kind of food it is. Maybe you could use disposable nursing bottles (like the Playtex ones with plastic liners) for less mess with the bottles? Make sure to boil her water, even if you get safe water from somewhere it might not agree with her if it is not what she is used to.

For bug protection when you are hiking you could get some bridal veil fabric and drape it over the baby and the child carrier. Also they do make some bug repellants that are supposed to be safe for kids, ask your doctor if they would be OK for a baby that young.

Other sites with info about backpacking with kids are www.kidssource.com and www.naturerangers.com. Good luck!”

“i think kelty makes bugscreens for their baby carriers.”

“We bought a mosquito net made for a stroller with elastic edges for a few $$$ last year.”

“REI has the Kelty trekker on sale right now for $109.99, $45 off! The sun and rain hood is on sale too. I recommend whatever carrier you get has the sun/rain hood. Affords pretty good protection from the elementys and also tree branches. Gives you something to drape bug netting over too.

As for food, Abby didn't want anything to do with the breast so we do formula and rice cereal. I'll just steralize bottles and nipples everynight in boiling H2O. I-am-om had the same idea I do with the baby food mill. You can find one @ www.onestepahead.com along with diaper liners and bug netting. Someone suggested on a previous thread to use the biodegradable paper liners so you can bury solid waste instead of packing it out. GREAT IDEA! There were alot of great ideas on some past threads. I'll do a search and see if I can find them for you.”

“One thing I wanted to mention is that when I'm out alone with Ana in her carrier I bring a small hand mirror so I can see how she's doing back there.”

“There's "backpacking with a baby?" and also a few under "Kids" in general. Go to the bottom or top of the page and search "all threads" in the "Messages from how long" slot.”

“Great idea Twigeater!”

“"...and you seem to be quite the talker."

Picked right up on that one, did ya? LOL!”

“newgirl:
The book is called "Camping & Backpacking with Children" by Steven Boga, Stackpole Press.
It deals mostly with younger children; getting them interested in hiking, trail games, trail food, clothing. But there is one short chapter on infants; clothing, feeding, etc.”

“I didn't realize how silly I was to miss how twisted everyone is Ice Tea. It should be very taboo to mention breastfeeding on a public forum. Ha-Ha! If anyone felt the need to make a comment, it would only show how ridiculously immature they were and should be ignored. I still maintain that every person who has posted something has been nice and offered great advice. Try believing in human good and don't be so negative. Joy, thanks for all the info.”

“Thanks Hangman, I'll check it out. Twigeater, that mirror idea is great!”

“Can anyone recommend a good brand of baby stroller/jogger for the trail?”

“John,

We registered for one of these for our baby. We test drove it in the store and it is pretty cool! The one wheel in the front helps with manuverabilty. A lot more so than a stroller with four wheels.

http://www.jeepworld.com/merchandise/jeepstrollers.htm”

“Yup WK, I saw those too. They look pretty nice.

I'm also considering a more expensive model, used off ebay. I haven't used ebay much so I'm a little edgy about getting screwed.”

“"Can anyone recommend a good brand of baby stroller/jogger for the trail?"

Yes - Indiana John. LOL”

“We have the most inexpensive one that Babies R Us sold. It works fine for the trail, although a carrier is nicer imo. Roots and rocks and stuff can make for a bumpy ride. Abby's jogging stroller has probably upwards of two thousand miles on it. You don't need to buy a specialized model, just get big bike tires and a sunshade.”

“How much was the Babies R us Model...Oh never mind I can look online..duh!

I would rather use the carrier, but I can't carry the weight on my back yet :(”

“A stroller would not work on the trails around here. Where are you people backpacking? The city park?”