Backpacking With A Baby

When our son was 2 months old, it was time to hit the trail. Our friends and their two kids(girls, age 8 and 6) where ready to embark on their first backpacking trip. So in total we had 5 people on our trip who had never hit the trail before. Because, this was an experimental trip, we decided a short trip one night only and only 4 miles total. It was a great trip. Everyone had a good time, and we all learned a lot.

Here are the big things that stuck out to me, that might help you if you decide to take a very young baby backpacking.

Wild Woods Baby

Hydration, H2O, Water, Agua, etc: It was June and weather conditions were pretty hot. I needed way more water than we thought I would need. Thankfully everyone packed plenty. Being 2 months post-partum, breastfeeding, and summer heat made it necessary for me to drink everyone's excess water. I can't believe how thirsty I was for the entire trip. In total, I think I must have had 9 liters in the 24 hours we were out, and I was still thirsty when we got back to the house. I think even if the weather was cooler I still would have needed more water than is normal for me.

My backpack modification. 

Baby Carrying: I modified my husbands backpack and an Infantino baby wearing backpack to fit together, so that he could carry the baby on his chest. It was fairly simple. I cut off the waist strap on the Infantino, made new seams(using a sewing machine), and replaced the buckles on both backpacks with buckles that would marry. It turned out great! My husband and our boy were both very comfortable. Daniel even said having the baby on his chest helped to balance out the load on his back. He said he thought he could probably even carry more weight this way.

Chilling out at our campsite. 

Diapering:We packed 8 flour sack towels and 2 diaper covers for our baby. He breastfed like normal and loved looking around at all the new scenery.

Play Time: We brought a large piece of plastic to lay on the ground to serve as a "blanket" as well as the ground cloth for our tent.

Sun Protection: Babies this young are not recommended to wear sunscreen, so to protect him we dressed him in footie pajamas and had him wear a "Gilligan" style hat.