Do I need to duct tape my kids?

I would bundle them up in warm clothes instead of relying on them staying under a cover. Have the entire tent floor covered by closed cell matts, which are light and can be used at camp too.

Aron, no offence but I don’t think using duct tape to keep the kids in place is a very good idea.

Gorilla tape is a lot stronger so you need to carry less of it.

This is BPL after all.

Honestly, this has been one of the hardest parts about backpacking and camping with a kid.  Though at almost 4 now, he’s starting to get better.  He’s in an adult quilt with the top folded down a ways, so he’s at the narrower end.  We use fabric straps (sewn into a figure 8) and sleeves for the pads so three pads stay together, and usually the tent doesn’t have any extra room for him to slide into.

I think dressing them in high loft fleece before bed, and covering the sleeping pad with the hook side of hook and loop tape might be effective though, and it being reusable would save some weight on longer trips.

Zak

I wedge my 3year old’s foam zlite between me and the tent wall.  He has no where to go so doesn’t roll off.

We do the same with my 1 year old daughter.  Between wife and tent edge.  Works great.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I might ad that we have a large pyramid tent, a MLD Mondomid, the spacious ground area makes confining the child or covering the floor in closed cell mats a bit tricky.

The idea of combining fleece overalls and Velcro is brilliant! :)

Has anyone figured out a clever way to rise the sides of the air mattresses? I´m thinking that maybe some sort of sleeve stuffed with clothes might do the trick?

How about a ‘form-fitting mesh bivy bag’ containing both SB and mat (and kid)? Secure the mesh bag to the pad with a couple of very light tapes as well.

Cheers

I have found that the inflatable mattresses do not work at all with my little guy. However, my old, heavy, self inflating thermarest pads seem to do the trick. Keeps him lower and less of a chance of falling off. And when he does wiggle off its easier to just push him back on. I would think something like the z lite pads would also do the trick.

Kids don’t need air mattresses.  A foam pad is plenty for their flexible bodies.  It’s easier to keep them on foam too.  The foam won’t slip on the floor as much; the sleeping bag won’t slip on the foam as much.  But honestly, I can’t remember my kids ever complaining about getting cold and they were squirmers too.

Oh, I should probably also ad that we live in Scandinavia and like the mountains. Our last camp site had a snow field just across the stream, maybe 30-40 m away. We prepare for temperatures around freezing during night time, even during summer, so kidoz definitely need good sleeping bags/mattresses in order to stay happy.

Aron – my 9 year old is forever rolling off his pad, a small TAR XTherm. I under-inflate it slightly and that seems to help, although the best inflatable pad I found for keeping me centred is the Exped Synmat / Downmat UL series with its vertical baffles. The outermost baffles are slightly larger than those in between. The thing I didn’t like about the Exped UL series pads was that the face fabric is really slippery, so I’d often slide down it if camped on the slightest slope. Some of the XTherms seem to have a slightly sticky top surface, although it varies from batch to batch.

This winter I’ll be trying a quilt with pad straps layered over my son’s 40F sleeping bag to see if that helps keep him in place as well as adding insulation.

As a complete aside, you’re the only person who I’ve seen mention they own the MondoMid. I owned the SuperMid, and it was just a little tight for three adults. Forget it with four adults. Have you found any disadvantages with the size of the MondoMid? Seam sealing challenges? Site selection? Centre pole setup? Cheers!

I think I will try to get hold of some cheap travel sheets and then sew them into small “straight jackets”. They are usually fairly light and pack small.

The Mondomid is fine for four adults, with plenty of room for kit. If it was not for the center pole the floor space could squeeze five. It is definitely a big tent and requires a larger camp site. But here the center pole is an advantage, with most tents one has to make sure that the ground points for all poles are as level as possible. With a mid you only need level sleeping spots, and that’s a much smaller surface area than the tents footprint. Seam sealing was needed but easy enough, I followed instructions found here and spent a hour with a small brush in my garden. Is seems to stay dry as far as we have seen. I use Pacerpoles with a extra connecting center rod, they are not light by any means, but I like them. Also these poles feel reassuringly sturdy. I am not sure I would  sleep that well in hard weather with one of those super light “fishing-pole-with-a-handle” trekking poles as the only support keeping the elements from my family. All in all we are very happy with the tent. The only downside is that with a full size inner we have no vestibule for kit and cooking. I have been thinking of a few solutions to temporarily pull back the inner against the far wall and allow some room just inside the door. Or I will just bring a piece of poly and pull it over the top and out over the front. I probably should mention that one of the panels came misaligned by about 5 cm (2 freedom units). This is purely aesthetical and MLD have offered to fix it, but I still feel they should have spotted this before they sent it out.

Let me know if you have any further questions!

The picture bellow is from the spot I mentioned earlier, in the Norwegian montains.

When the kids were young, we would use snap together foam pads as our “ground sheet”, under the tent. Although they were bulky (12″x12″), they were light. We also used normal sleeping pads, but the extra 1/2″ of foam under the tent insured that the kids didn’t puncture the floor, and also got a good night’s sleep wherever they were in the tent.

When car camping these days, we still do the same thing, but use pieces of Reflectix taped together.