DH and I have camped for a no of years, just never with the children. Have a very fussy 9month old who likes her milk and food hot, also only food she will eat is homemade, won't entertain jars at all. Questions are: can you heat ready mixed formula in a pot and would you recommend buying a cool box of freezer in order to keep her food safe? Would only be going for 3 days this time, but if it works well would go for longer next time. Thanks in advance
we make our DDs bottles up one at a time when camping - we boil water and put it in a thermos when we make one and use that for the next bottle. Also our DD now 10 months will eat whatever we do (so we will cook whatever she will eat) - we do most veg etc we would at home with pasta and sauce or cassarol etc - hers is just mashed or if that is too lumpy put through a mouli mix? Can you eat the things she does?
oh and if you are taking ready made formula you can just put it in her bottle and then put the bottle in a jug of hot water to heat it up? We find mixing it much easier! If you were to take homemade food for her then you do need to be careful it is kept cold - but surely you can make her food up fresh? Does she eat an finger foods at all?
They'll obviously still be on bottles as well so you need to consider bottle steriliser...as a lot of people like us use microwave to sterilise bottles now. We took a single bottle steriliser with tablets and that worked quite well.
I would definitely invest in powered coolbox if you're taking your own food but even then I think you'd be struggling to keep it safe for three days. Heating things in a pan is no problem although again it doesn't take long for small quantities to go from warm to very hot quickly.
I have in the past taken a 2yr old & 9 month old (this was our first camping trip, apart from when I was a girl guide!) then the following year we had no.3 who was 3 month old, when we went away. I took a tupperware box with a lid and cold water sterilizing tablets. With regards to food, can you cook for the 3 days something that you can all eat and just mash hers up a bit. My brother and his wife have a baby now, and when they go out they take a thermos of boiled water and the powdered formula separate, this maybe an option for you as well. Therefore you will not have the worry about re-heating ready made milk, which I am sure you can re-heat.
Thanks, am probably worrying over nothing. She is slightly behind with her food and is still eating mostly pureed, but with some lumps. Will take some pasta and some fresh veg and hopefully whip up something edible. Also have some milton tablets for sterilising her things. However for future use can anyone recommend a good electric cool box or freezer for around £100. Thanks.
A nine month old who is crawling around on the floor eating dust bunnies and chewing the cat doesn't need their bottles sterilized unless you're intending to actually store milk in them. If the bottle is decently clean all you need to do is to pour readymix into it and heat it in a jug of water, or make up formula with water and powder, then feed the baby immediately. if you're worried about this then rinse the bottle out with boiling water just before you use it. It's pointless to worry about sterilizing bottles or cups once they get to this stage.
Or at nine months she could have started drinking from a cup...which is a good time to introduce her to the concept of room temperature ready-mix milk. Actually most babies will drink room temperature or tepid milk fairly readily. Breast milk isn't that hot, after all!
As for the food, I would take either a potato masher or a hand cranked mini-mouli and mash up her dinner on the spot, plus get her used to finger foods. If you start now to introduce her to a wider range of easy to prepare and eat camping foods she'll be more willing to accept them. Don't leave it till you get to the actual camping.
I'm afraid I stopped any steralising at 6 months as my 2 were on the go and attending a number of baby groups, and mother and toddlers so everything was in their mouth. We camped with them from tiny and they always had what we had to eat. By the time my daughter came along we had electric hook up and a slow cooker so alot of soups and stews which is great at this time of the year! As a stand by we always had a jar and some mini bread sticks/rice cakes and they never went hungry.
The other suggestion that just occurred to me is that not all jars are equal. Most baby food is revolting and my kids never liked it either but they did like the jars of pure fruit purees and they did like baby cereals. If your daughter was the same, it certainly wouldn't hurt her to live on milk, cereal, fruit puree and some finger foods (cheese, bread sticks, veg fingers, bits and pieces off your plates etc) for three days. She might even lose some of her fussy habits if the pressure to eat "normally" is taken off for a few days and she's just allowed to graze along...plus of course the fresh air and less sleeping hours will make her hungrier.
Just remember that parents worry most about their first born chick. ;-) I recall going to France with my third one when she was eight months old and only realising on the ferry that I hadn't packed anything food related for her apart from a cup, lol. She was still being breastfed, thank goodness, but it was a quick scurry round the local supermarche on the other side. We were going for a month too! She did just fine, put on weight and even started to cruise on that holiday, using the car for a support.
my son was behind when it came to eating but skipped the lumpy foods as wouldn't tolerate them just went straight on to family foods and never really looked back I had also stopped sterilising everything by the time all mine where 6-8 months they pick all sorts up and put in their mouths so I didn't see the point as for the coolboxs you can pick them up in halfords for less than £100
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we had a 'travel' steriliser last year, which is basically a tupperware box that holds two bottles, on our first camp with our baby daughter who was 6 months then. to be honest, we did find it a bit more time consuming than usual, due to only being able to sterilise two at a time, so didn't bother sterilising at all after that trip. by the time the summer was over she was happily eating food and drinking less milk.
now (at 17 months) she eats the same as we do, obviously less quantity though, and still likes some fresh cows milk first thing in the morning, and last thing at night.
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When my eldest was very young for short trips i bought the use once bottles with ready made formula ( he was brought up on room temperature milk from the start!) he was also one that would eat nothing apart from pureed food until he was two! so i used to take my hand blender with me to blitz his food up.
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2012 Planned
Easter - Cornwall
July scout camp
August North Wales
Thanks for all your great replies, not so worried about the sterilsing side of things was more fretting about the food. Think that taking a hand blender is a great idea, so thank you.
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