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Hi Lindsey,

Our little lad will be 2 in May. We've bought a 'My First Ready Bed' and a Gelert Junior Sleeping bag. Does your little one sleep in a regular bed already or is she still in a cot? Our lad was in a normal bed at 16 months so is used to the freedom of getting up and down on his own, but if she's still in a cot, you might want to take a travel cot. That said, if you don't already have a travel cot it would be a bit of a waste of money.

The 'Mr First Ready Bed's' are great because when inflated, the sides are slightly raised so they don't roll off in the middle of the night and they also have an inflatable headboard attached. We got ours off Amazon in January and it cost £21.99, they do vary in price, so shop around. The Gelert Junior sleeping bag cost just £11.99 (I think!).

Good luck!

Oh, just thought of something else - when we went camping last year, he was just 15 months old and the hardest part was getting him to sleep because it was so light inside the tent! He did finally go to sleep the first night around 10pm when it went dark!  Not much you can do about that unless your tent is dark fabric. I'm still pondering that one...

We have gotten our little chap used to a mini-hot water bottle here at home so that he will be able to have it inside his sleeping bag when we are away as we will be camping over Easter when it may be quite chilly at night. I'm packing a couple of thin fleece blankets too - just in case!

Our little boy will be about 18months too in the summer. When we camped with our daughters at that age we still used a travel cot even though they were in a bed at home. I think I worried about the lackof other restraints and whether they might just go wandering off down the campsite. When one of them was 2 she similarly wouldn't go to sleep until it got dark and we spent 2 1/2 hours fighting over the zip to her bedroom.

We once camped next to some people who had triplet toddlers and they built the equivalent of a garden fence around their tent out of windbreaks!

I asked a question about keeping sharp knives and other dangerous objects at

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=3&TopicID=59479&PagePosition=1

A set of toddler reins and one of these should do the trick!

Also, if you take a travel cot, it can double up as a play-pen for those moments when you simply cannot give toddler 100% of your attention e.g. setting up tent, cooking meals.

My son will be 21 months when we next go camping, when he first went he was 6 weeks old so we had a travel cot for hima nd used it as a playpen for someone to put him down but now hes older he would hate to be trapped in it so this year he is going on a normal airbed with a nago junior sleeping bag.  As i have 5 chidlren aged 8 and under safety is my main priority over anything else and i purchased a kitchen tent i have pitched along side main tent with is off limits to the kids, that way i know little fingers wont be getting near the kettle, hot stoves and knives, for me this is something i would put on my list if i had small children.

I always take a buggy so no need for a highchair as i used to feed him in there and this year he will be up table with the others. Never had a problem with not sleeping as they normally run around all day they are knackered for bedtime lol

julesrush