Welcome to Botches Off-Road.
Join us today as we talk about everything from gear reviews to trail stories, tent camping
to rock landing and all things to do with the outdoors.
Today is going to be a little solo episode.
You know, I wanted to get this out there while it was fresh for me, while I still have a
young child, and the episode is going to be surrounded around taking your kid out camping,
hiking, and over landing for the first couple of times.
Some tips and tricks, some advice that I'm willing to give you.
You can cherry pick what you want out of it.
You can not do any of it.
I don't care.
This is just some info for you guys to maybe give you an idea on ways that you can do it.
So without further ado, here we go.
And the first and foremost and most important would probably be you and your partner's attitude
on the whole situation, on the camping, on the over landing.
So what do you be it?
You know, it's super important to manage your attitude, your expectations, and understand
that that has a big play in what's going on and what happens.
So make sure your attitude is taken care of.
Make sure that you have a positive attitude when you need to.
And you know, the next, the next, which falls into my next thing, make sure you guys are
working as a team.
Very, very, very important to work as a team as a couple, especially when you have a young
kid around, little backs ground on me.
I have a 11 month old son named Jasper, and I have a beautiful wife named Sienna.
And we have been doing this since Jasper was three months old.
I realize that that is pretty early for some people.
And I want to reassure some of you that I had waited to where I felt was a safe time
to take him out for the first time.
And I mean that multiple ways I waited until it was warm enough that he wouldn't freeze.
And I waited until he was fully able to turn himself around, you know, with his own with
his own weight.
And until he was old enough to be able to hold his head mostly.
So that's that's a big one.
At that point Jasper was not, he was not sitting up on his own, but he was holding his own
head up and he was able to roll.
So for me, that was very important.
And I honestly would recommend not doing anything earlier than three months or four months.
And you know, obviously, everyone's child is different.
If your kid is repetitively lifting its head, he is rolling, he is balancing himself and
keeping himself out of certain situations.
You know, make that call yourself.
I am not your doctor.
But what we did is we waited until I happened and that was around three months, three to
four months.
And you know, we took him out and this kind of pushes into my next piece of advice for
you is that we took him out to a local campground, you know, camping, overlanding, backpacking
with a kid.
It's going to be different than what you're used to.
And the best and safest place to do it is at a local place or even your backyard.
And you want to make sure your kid is able to do it in the first place.
I don't see why they wouldn't be, but it's better than going, you know, 500 miles and
finding out that this is not going to work.
So the other piece of advice is taking him out to a local campground or him or her, whatever,
to a local campground and trying it out in a safe environment.
And you don't know there's so many, I guess, unknowns of camping at that young age, you
want it to be as safe as you possibly can starting out.
So that first, the first two months we spent local campgrounds, something that was within
the 30 minutes of a hospital or so.
And that can be a part of your planning, honestly, there's plenty of campgrounds that
are somewhat close to hospitals that you would be good with.
So, you know, making those are my first couple, you know, working as a team, you know, keeping
a positive attitude, keeping your first couple camps close to home.
And then, you know, some more advice, I would say is gear wise, your gear is going to change
and what you need is going to change.
You're going to need something to warm milk, you're going to need a place for your kid
to sit and eat, you're going to need, you know, multiple blankets, multiple towels,
and I'll get into that in a little bit, but you're going to need a lot more than what
you're used to packing.
So maybe you pack minimally, you're going to realize that that's going to change and,
you know, that's okay, you just need to plan for it.
So let me help you.
The first things that you want to pack when you're packing for your child, of course, diapers,
but cream, wipes, formula, and then you get into other things like medicine, you want to
have everything that your kid's going to need, children's Tylenol for fevers, you're going
to want, um, gripe water, gas relief, you know, constipation relief, any of that kind
of thing, which I think is gripe water.
So you, you want to make sure that you're, you're well prepared medicine wise for that.
So you have your diaper cream, you have your diapers, you have your medicine, you have your
thermometer, you have everything you need to diagnose and take care of that child and
anything else, you know, this is, you need to go somewhere else, right?
So of course you should have a first aid kit.
Of course you should, you know, have a little changing pad or something like that.
So you're not changing them on the ground or on a picnic table that, you know, is,
you know, that's more of a courteous thing.
People eat off of it.
I know what's outside.
I know what's outdoors, but it's just, it's like a common courtesy and you know, maybe
the baby booty gets a splinter.
You don't want that.
So you know, making sure you're packed right, making sure that you have packed enough clothing.
If your baby, if your baby typically goes through one outfit a day, pack three.
I am an overprepper.
I will stand on this hill to the dad, I especially about having infants that if you're, if you,
your kid normally goes through one or two changes of clothes and you're going to be out
for let's say three days a weekend and two, four, six.
If you need six, you need nine.
Like that's, I mean, if you, if he only goes through one outfit a day, you have one, two,
three outfits, uh, double that and then add three.
That's what I do.
And, and I have never ran out of outfits for my son.
The worst thing is when you're out in the middle of a camp trip and you are on the middle
of the woods and you run out of outfits, socks, undies, shirts, because your kid is throwing
up spitting up, um, playing in the dirt, getting nasty, getting wet.
You know, there's, there's a long list of reasons on why your kids clothes have to be
changed blowouts.
Number one.
Um, so pack more than you need and more than you think that you need because you might
go through it.
Uh, so when you're packing this, I suggest all putting this in one bag, try not to pack
it with your own stuff.
It's a lot easier to take the baby's bag in with you in the tent.
Um, you have a diaper bag that has all of the medicine, the diapers, the cream, the
wipes, the extra clothing, uh, bottles, formula.
Uh, and if you can't fit all the formula, whether you just throw a couple in some Ziploc
baggies pre-measured, we use protein powder, uh, little protein powder storage cups for
ours that worked really well.
And we figured how many we would need between, uh, you know, the past couple of days and
then how much you breastfed.
And that was just to put in the diaper bag.
We had formula in the truck, but if we didn't want to get out of the tent, we wanted to
mix it up in there.
We obviously had water, we had formula and we could do that.
Uh, we got really lucky or baby doesn't care.
Um, early on, he didn't care the temperature of our formula.
Um, so we didn't have to warm it up all the time, which brings me into my next tip.
Make sure you have a bottle, make sure you have bottle cleaners.
I have a dedicated bottle brush just for my son.
I don't use on any other camp where, and I do disinfect it once a weekend probably.
Um, you know, if you were to ask someone else or maybe a little bit more of a, uh, how would
I put it, a helicopter E mom or a little bit more careful mom, that doesn't mean you're
wrong.
It doesn't mean it's bad.
It just means you're a little bit more careful.
If you were to ask them, you should be, uh, you know, using a bottle brush and, and, and
boiling your bottle to decontaminate and kill off all the germs.
And I'll be quite honest, we didn't do that really.
Um, not unless the bottle got really dirty or fell down.
We did not boil the bottle to decontaminate or, um, sanitize it.
Uh, we did clean it very well.
The bottle brush and some dawn, um, and rinse it very well.
And that was it when we camped.
Um, you know, I can you, yes, we have a jet boil.
We could boil the water.
Did we know, uh, and, and you know what, Jasper came out fine.
He's still okay.
Everything went well.
That's what you want to do, do it, we don't.
So moving on.
It, you know, the other thing is, uh, having toys, having things to play with.
Um, when he was about four to six months, he was starting to tee a little bit.
Um, and be prepared.
Teething is a whole another game plan.
You find it pretty easy to camp when you're young, uh, you know, when he's younger, uh,
because he can breastfeed primarily, but when he's teething, he's starting to be a little
bit of mixture of puree.
Um, things change a little bit.
So, you know, it's not easy when the baby's teething and that is probably one of the most
stressful times for camping.
Um, that, you know, that I can think of that for us anyway, he's, he's always sick.
He's clingy.
His nose is constantly running.
He's slobbering everywhere.
Hence the nine pairs of clothing, extra clothes.
And then, you know, it's just, it's not easy.
But, um, do I ever get doing it now at all?
It's completely doable.
Um, you know, I, again, every, everyone's baby is different.
Everybody's patience threshold is different.
Um, my wife and I are very good team.
We handled it pretty well.
Um, we dosed the kid with Tylenol as needed to help manage the fever and we kept teething
toys in Ziploc bags in the cooler and then in the fridge after I upgraded to help with
teething.
So very important.
Uh, you need something he needs to chew on something to help relieve some of that pressure.
Um, another, another tip that we ended up doing was celery.
Uh, celery and then, you know, asterisks, you know, big warning sign is an allergen.
So don't try celery out the first time if you're out in the middle of a campground.
Try it in the comfort of your home.
Make sure that celery isn't going to make your child break out in hives or, or react
in some way because it is an allergen.
It might not be one of the well-known ones, but it is an allergen.
Um, and then obviously keep an eye on your child on any kind of food that can break off
into pieces and lodge in their throat.
Common sense.
I know.
And so using, using celery was kind of our saving grace.
It's there was a lot of pieces.
We broke them off into five to six inch pieces, give or take, cut the ends off, the little
dirty ends and we let them know on the celery, the cold celery.
And another really good thing about celery is that it has numbing agents that are safe.
Uh, you know, safe enough.
It's just a, you know, I don't know exactly what it's called analgesic.
I probably fucked all that up.
I always say that up, but it's got a numbing agent that actually helps as a pain reliever
for the child.
So so it's a double duty, man.
It's helping with teething.
It's helping numb the gums up a little bit so that doesn't hurt as much.
And it just worked, man.
I went on a 1200 mile trip and he ate celery 30% you know, 30, 40% of this trip in his
hand constantly.
So keep that in mind.
Um, again, watch your kid, uh, and to recap and to make sure that this is instilled.
It's an allergen.
Try the allergens and stuff that are allergens at home.
If you're going to try peanut butter sandwiches, do the peanut butter sandwiches at home first.
If you're going to give him a little lick of that peanut butter and you haven't tried
to see if he's allergic to peanut butter, shame on you.
Do not take them out of the middle of the woods and not try that first.
So try your allergens or any planned allergens before you leave.
Uh, and when he's teething, make sure you bring enough stuff for his teething, his fever.
And then so now we get into cool.
You've packed, you have enough clothes and you, you have everything to help him with
his teething.
You have formula.
You have puree.
Um, and then, you know, if you want my advice, take it or leave it.
We started him out breast milk.
And then a little bit of infant cereal.
And as he got older, you know, especially the teething area, once he starts showing
those signs of wanting some other food, you'll start licking his lips.
He'll show interest in the food we're eating.
That's when we started him on, you know, breast milk and infant formula.
So as we did that, we, we slowly transitioned him and, and mixed the ratio of breast milk
to infant formula higher and higher as he got more comfortable and older to be able
to deal with it.
Obviously you want him to be able to swallow it.
And by the time that we got to puree, it was pretty thick.
It was about the thickness of a puree is, is what we stopped out for breast milk and
infant cereal.
So now that we're in puree, we're in first foods, uh, you know, and I'm using Gerber's
first foods like they're, they're measuring system.
We're in first foods and now we're in a really thin puree.
We're going to start him on that puree for however long that you feel comfortable with
and that they are comfortably eating at.
Once they feel like they're really moving through that puree, um, start adding infant
cereal to make it a little thicker and we're going to do the same thing with the infant
cereal that we did with the milk and we're going to slowly move the mixture up as time
goes and as they feel more comfortable, you'll see that they'll struggle less, they'll struggle
less and they'll do better.
Um, and all the while make sure that you are alternating and using a wide, wide, wide variety
of different foods.
Um, do not keep them at Apple.
Do not keep them at Pear.
Make sure that every week you're trying a new food, you're doing apples, peas, pears,
carrots, you know, broccoli, tomatoes, blend your own food, make sure it's very thin, make
sure it's, you know, edible, um, and blend your own food at home too.
Uh, as they get older, thicken it up as they get more comfortable, thicken it up, start
adding puffs, start adding melts, start adding, uh, you know, softer foods that they can eat
by themselves.
I overcook, um, noodles, uh, small, small noodles, um, keep in mind the size of their airways
and, and try to keep everything under that.
The most dangerous foods that you can give a kid, hot dogs, grapes, uh, anything spongy
that can conform to their airway and the throat.
So make sure that you're sticking away from that or if you want to do a hot dog, fine,
but you need to be doing very small, small pieces, very, very, very small.
If you think it's not small enough, then cut it smaller and that's usually good gauge.
So that's just a quick, uh, a food camping and food update or advice.
Um, and that's how we weaned him and got him through the food and mostly out by the time
that he's 11 months.
So he, we did that throughout camping.
So obviously if you're, if your child is within that age range that he's starting to transition
into puree and then thicker puree, keep some infant cereal, just keep it in the truck,
keep some puree on deck.
Um, and, and there's your, you know, your transition, your advice as far as food goes.
And that doesn't just have to play out.
Um, obviously that doesn't just play out for camping.
It's more of a all the wrong line.
That's what I did.
And that's, uh, maybe that'll help you out a little bit on finding that out for you.
So we move past your, uh, you know, your prep, your teamwork with your partner, um, and,
and, and some of the, the food stuff that you're packing, um, pack extra pads, uh, or blankets
for them to plan on the grass.
Um, when they're younger, they're just going to grab handfuls of stuff and shove them in
their mouth.
Uh, watch that, pebbles, grass, uh, charcoal.
We had our kid eat a piece of charcoal once.
Um, it's, it's all somewhat normal.
Don't freak out, but make sure that you're watching what they're doing.
If you have enough room for, uh, like a playpen, do that.
We didn't.
So we just used a large blanket and, uh, and make sure that you have like a large blanket
for your, uh, like they're laying area too.
Um, if you, if you prefer a bassinet, if you don't like co-sleeping, that you can definitely
find bassinets on Amazon, uh, that only have the floors or that you could set stand alone
without your stand.
So, so make sure that you have, uh, you know, extra towels, blankets for them to lay on
and you know, your bassinet.
Uh, I would also recommend Bumbo seats, personal recommendation from me.
Um, once they can sit up on their own and keep their, you know, their, their head and
their back up, Bumbo seats are great for feeding.
You can feed them anywhere and you could throw them on a folding chair and face them towards
you.
So what my wife would do a lot of the times is I would set up our folding chairs and
she would put my folding chair opposing to me and she would feed them like that if we
didn't have a picnic table.
Um, but towards the beginning we were using, you know, going to a lot of state parks.
Most of them had picnic tables so we could set up our chairs at the picnic table, put
him in the Bumbo so that he was nice and sturdy and safe and feed him and it was like eating
as a family on the dinner table.
So, uh, the Bumbo was really nice for that and it's not a high chair.
So you don't have that big folding mess and we really liked that.
So there's your other thing, um, also when you're, you have a cooler or refrigerator,
make sure you're bringing storage containers for breast milk.
If you're, if your wife's significant other is producing breast milk and, uh, make sure
that you have a way to store that so that it stays fresh and stays okay.
A lot of the times my wife would feed the kid directly and she was overproducing so
much that we ended up having to get rid of some of it.
It sucks, but that was just kind of how it went at first.
So making sure that you have a good storage system for that, um, as well as, uh, like
I said earlier, making sure you have a way to warm up breast milk if your baby doesn't
like it.
I have a jet boil.
Um, obviously you don't want your, your kid's milk to be boiling, but it does warm your
kid's milk up as well as like a Coleman camp stove would.
So, uh, make sure you have a way to warm it up.
Uh, make sure you have storage solutions for your milk.
Um, if you have to sanitize them just in fact, make sure you have a way to do that like a
pot to boil the bottles in, have dedicated bottle brush, um, and then it brings me to,
um, other than your bumbos towels.
Why do you need towels?
Um, the most, uh, you know, best way that I can put this is your, your baby is going
to spit up at one point while you're camping.
Um, whether you're lucky and that's on you or you're very unlucky and it's on your sleeping
bag, um, it's going to happen.
So just be prepared.
Don't, don't get frustrated.
It happens.
It's part of the game.
And yeah, my extra advice is to you is if you're sleeping with your child in a sleeping bag
or you're sleeping with your kid in the bassinet, um, use a towel as a sheet or use a towel to
put inside the sleeping bag with you.
We did co-sleep with our child and, uh, we don't give a shit.
Uh, what others people think about that.
That's what we did and it worked out very well for us.
Uh, but we did co-sleep with the kid in the sleeping bag with us and we had a towel a lot
of the times in the sleeping bag under the kids so that if he did spit up at least a
little bit or, you know, any kind of bodily fluids, you know, he peed through his diaper,
then we had at least a chance to save the sleeping bag.
Um, so that it wasn't bad all weekend, but you know, that's where synthetic and non-down
sleeping bags are kind of great because if something did happen, which we've had happen,
you can just run to the laundromat.
There are laundry mats in most towns, most small towns run to the laundry mat for 30
minutes, have someone grab groceries, wash your sleeping bag and bring it back.
It goes back to the, uh, glass half full mentality, working with your partner and your attitude.
Make sure that, you know, you guys are all on the same page and you're trying to do this
together.
So, uh, you know, just, just, I, you know, we put a towel out there and if he puked,
then, you know, we dealt with that.
Uh, and if it was so bad that we needed to take it to the laundromat, we did.
So we really like having a couple extra towels.
Think of them, you know, I brought three towels I brought for one for me, one for the baby
and one for the Sienna.
And we used, uh, you know, we used one of them for the sleeping bag, kept the other ones
if we took a shower or anything and that was it.
So we got your bumbo, we got your food, your packed, you got all that in the truck.
Um, and then now it comes to my advice is, is, is as a team, figure out who's going to
do what and work together.
So for me, my wife had, and I have a dynamic that works really well for us, might not work
well for you, but that's your job to figure it out together as a team.
Uh, so my wife and I, I primarily deal everything with driving with the truck, with organization,
with the packing, uh, because I like to know where everything's at.
I like the organization and it bothers me if it's out of place.
So I do that primarily and she lets me and, and so her job is to, especially when I'm
when it was younger to take care of the child and to make sure the child's needs were well
thought of and taken care of.
So at that, you know, uh, you know, three to 10 months, you know, it's all about mom.
You know, the kid doesn't have much autonomy.
They don't really know that they're separated from their mother, you know, uh, you know,
deep down they don't really feel that way.
They still feel like they're connected.
So, um, for us, that was just kind of an easier way for us to go.
Okay.
Well, he's already, you know, if he's going to get upset.
That you know what he wants.
He wants mom.
He wants, um, anyone serve her comfort.
So that's, that's an easy way for us to go.
Hey, maybe that's, that's the rule that we take.
So we took more of the traditional role.
And so I, I, when we get to our campsite, she'll take him out.
Um, she'll come for him, get him ready to change him, do whatever we need to do.
I take the 10 out.
I set up the 10.
I put all the bedding into it and then she gets in there with the baby and she puts the
bedding together.
So it's not super hard.
You know, sometimes the baby crawling around could be annoying, but, um, but it's, it's
not crazy.
It's not super labor intensive.
The tents already made the rain flies already up.
Um, she had a chance to relax a little bit with the baby beforehand.
Now she can chill with the baby inside the tent, get the bedding ready.
And while she's doing that, I am cooking.
I'm getting at, you know, the chairs out.
I'm getting the mosquito stuff out.
I'm getting any kind of stuff that we need for the night.
Um, the bathroom, the, our little pop out, your, uh, pop out shower taken out.
I'm setting everything up to make it as comfortable and just set camp up as efficiently as I can
while she sets up the bedding.
So usually she's got the bedding all done by then.
She can go and relax in the chair with the kid while I cook dinner.
I cook dinner.
I make the kid the food and let's just play this out.
He's at his six month mark.
He's eating purees.
I'm making, uh, I'm making food for him, putting it into his little bowl.
Another thing you should have is a little cutlery for your baby.
Just makes it a little easier.
Um, I'm, or just use the cup that it came in.
Uh, you know, we do that a lot too.
We'll just pour the infant cereal into the, uh, into the puree cup, mix it up.
And that's usually plenty for him.
He's fine.
So we'll mix that up in there.
Um, well, I'll have that ready and she'll feed him in the bumbo seat on the picnic table.
Uh, and I'll have food ready and cook so she can eat that as well.
And then I typically eat much faster than her.
So I'm, you know, I'm done in like a minute and then, you know, so I take over feeding
the baby while she finishes her food.
And then that's how we run it.
Uh, we get done doing all that.
She takes the baby back into the tent or back out to the fire area or wherever she's at.
Uh, I clean up dishes.
I close up camp, close up the food for the night, go in the tent and the baby sleeps
with her in the sleeping bag to stay warm.
And that's pretty much how we do it.
And which, you know, then it's pretty much the reverse, the exact reverse way when we're
packing up, she sits in the tent, packs the stuff up while the baby's crawling around.
I pack all the accessories and all the big stuff up because I like to have it in a certain
way.
So I can find it when I need it.
And, and that's it.
I mean, it's really, it's really good for us to have our little team and to have our,
um, dynamic that way.
It works for us.
So find that way that works for you guys.
Um, you know, do your best, keep the positive attitude, make sure that you guys are keeping
each other's buckets full as they say.
Um, and if you notice that someone's, someone's attitude, someone's mentality is, you know,
dragging or it's getting really hard, pick up the slack and, and, and do better and they'll
do the same for you.
And at the bottom, you know, the bottom line, if you guys are both having a terrible time,
the kids constantly crying, you guys are just, you're just having a crap time.
Go home.
I mean, it's okay to go home.
It's okay to live and fight another day.
It's okay to, you're not quitting.
You're not a failure.
And I'm only saying that because sometimes I felt like that when we just couldn't do
it.
There were times where Jasper was teething that maybe we just were not having a great
time.
Um, you know, we're both stubborn, so we didn't pack up, but there were definitely times where
we wanted to.
And honestly, we probably would have had a better time at home than we were camping,
but we're both stubborn.
We both wanted to be out there and we both wanted to do it.
So, you know, just remember that it's okay.
Remember that you're the, you know, remember that your baby also grows at a different pace.
So a lot of the things that I'm talking about is based on my experience with my son and
your kid is going to be completely different or maybe he's similar or she's similar and
you that's okay.
They everyone grows at their own pace and that's okay.
So if you, with that being said, if you're not ready to take your child out at three
months, absolutely okay.
No shame.
If you're not ready to take your kid out after six months, absolutely okay.
No shame.
You know, there's no shame about it.
So it's kind of the great thing about this camping, overlanding world is that 90% of
these other overlanders and campers have done the same thing, um, have, have lived the same
thing and have great advice, uh, to help you get through it too.
I mean, I'm just one of many, um, you know, I was really worried at first that some of
these other guys that I camp with and overland with would, you know, be upset that my kid's
crying part of the night, you know, and, um, I always ask, you know, Hey, is it okay?
At least do stop worrying.
We've had kids.
We get it.
You know, we're not going to yell at you.
We're not upset about the fact that you have a kid that you're crying, you know, that he's
crying, you know, you're out here, you're doing it.
A lot of people do the same way and just remember that when you're out there, especially at state
parks.
You know, park campgrounds, who cares?
Dude, people run their generators all night.
They have dogs, their kids are screaming.
Who cares?
The state parks are the walmers of camping.
So don't even worry about state parks.
I, the only time that I really worried was when I was group camping, group dispersed
overlanding and, and I didn't want to wake other people up and you know what, they don't
have kids.
Most of them get it or they love kids and they don't care.
Um, obviously if it bothers you that much position yourself at the farthest away, I
put, I would put my 10 on the other side of the vehicle so that it wouldn't bother anyone
who would help, you know, drown out the crying or something.
But we, you know, we also, the kid also stayed in mom's arms most of the time.
So we didn't really have to, he didn't really have a lot of downtime crying.
Um, in the colic, you know, we solved that a lot of the times, uh, early on before he
was, you know, into his teething phase.
So keep that in mind.
Um, and you know, take everything I say with a grain of salt too, cherry pick what you
want, keep what you don't.
Um, and a lot of this, you know, it, it transfers over to overland and camping and even backpacking.
Backpacking is a lot of the same.
The only extra advice I would have with backpacking is that, uh, to get a really comfortable and
safe for the baby's hips, a child carrier, uh, in, in practice before you go out and
do these long hikes too, because this child carrier that you think might be great.
Um, it's not the same as a backpack, man.
It's going to feel a little different.
We, we started with a child carrier and quickly moved to a backpack, uh, because it was better
on our shoulders, better on our back.
And we went with the Deuter kid comfort and we really liked it.
It was a very, very expensive investment.
Uh, but you know what?
I don't think any other backpack would have done better.
So we really like it.
It's got the sun shields, got really good frame, really good back support and I'm a bigger
guy.
So it fits me well.
And like I said, my, you know, it's a lot of the same thing, uh, except for, you know,
the husband or whoever that's carrying the most weight or who can carry the most weight
is carrying for himself.
He's carrying for the partner and he's carrying for the baby.
So in our case, I carried clothes for me, clothes for my wife, clothes for my baby, extra diapers
for the baby.
I was in a base camp, you know, of the baby.
So I had any medicine, uh, cream, milk, uh, like the formula and water carried all that
and mom carried baby, a diaper, a changing pad and some wipes.
And, you know, that would equal out to about the same because carrying a baby weight wise
might be lighter, but it's not the same.
So my other tip is to use a pacifier tethers, uh, the little silicone ones.
You can get it like Meyer Walmart and use those not only for pacifiers, but use them
for toys, hang them off the backpack.
So when the kid's done playing with his toys, you can just throw them down.
And if also the side of the backpack and you don't have to keep picking it up.
So, uh, tethers, really nice tether your tethers to it.
Super great.
The other thing I would say is to have a pocket mirror.
Miranda goes outside, I believe it is, or Miranda goes hiking, uh, to YouTube channel.
She does one episode where she hikes with a kid and she recommends doing the, uh, having
a pocket mirror on your shoulder strap so that you can look at your pocket mirror and
look at the kid behind you on your back and see what's going on, see if their hat fell
too far down.
That's an absolutely fantastic idea.
We found ourselves taking the backpack off or craning our necks constantly.
So we're even using our phone's camera to look back.
So it'd be really nice to have a little pocket mirror sitting there.
So all great ideas.
Um, like I said, take them or leave them.
For backpacking, you know, those were our main, my main advice.
My, my other big thing is to remember that you're backpacking with a kid now and that,
uh, these, these 20 mile hikes probably aren't going to happen.
Uh, not like you think you're not going to cover 20 miles in a day.
And if you do congrats, but you're not going to do it at the same, same timeframe.
Don't expect to cover 20 miles in 10 hours.
It's not going to happen like that.
Again, if you're a super person, cool, good for you.
Not happening for the average person.
If we had a, uh, you know, let's say a five mile loop that we would do, uh, backpacking
or hiking, um, that would take us much longer than it typically would, uh, just walking
around.
You have to remember your baby, uh, is going to get restless.
It's going to want out.
It's going to want fed.
It's going to want proct.
It's going to want comfort.
And a lot of babies don't love sitting in a backpack for hours.
So, uh, just, just realize that if it's going to take you a three hours to hike this loop,
it's going to take you four and a half hours to hike this loop.
And to be prepped for that, you know, especially if you're going out like after work and like
we would go after work and do like an hour hike, who'd turn into an hour and a half to
two hour hike pretty quick with his, how much the baby wanted to get out.
Um, he would get fussy.
You have time to change him, uh, make him a bottle or, or feed him while we're sitting.
So keep that in mind.
Uh, that's, that's very important.
And yeah, I mean, so yeah, we went over over landing, hiking, backpacking, you know, kind
of the same thing.
Camping, we went over food, some things to prep.
What else?
Um, yeah, I think that's all that I have off the top of my head.
Um, all, this is all unscripted.
So I'm just, I'm thinking of things as I'm talking, which is why I tend to, uh, to drift
off and go off course quite a bit.
So, but I think we covered the basics and, and you know, and at the end of the day, getting
outside and doing it is the most important step that you can do.
Uh, you figure out what you need later.
And a lot of what I've said is stuff that I figured out after, uh, but I still got out
and did it.
So, you know, get your basics, make sure the baby's fed and taken care of and, and get
out there, you know, to do some safe conditions, do it in your backyard, do it at a state camp
ground, figure out what you need as you go.
And you know what?
Have fun.
You don't keep that positive attitude and remember that it's okay to quit.
It's okay to come back to this at a different time.
You know, if it's too hard to do it when they're three, four or five months old, come back
when they're five, six, seven, eight months old.
I mean, it's, it's not always about just pushing through and looking good about it.
It's, it's about you having fun.
It's about the baby having a good time too.
Um, and for me, you know, I think I started so early, you know, the day that he was born,
I had a forest sounds rain that played out as loud as I could.
Um, unintentionally, but I think I was getting him ready for all this because when he came
out to, for the first time, when he's a FOMO baby, he spent all day looking at the trees
and the grass and having, you know, soaking all of it up the first time.
It was amazing.
But two, it didn't really bother him.
Nothing bothered him.
He could sleep with it being loud out the rain on the tent, which I did play a lot of the
times to help him come to fall asleep before we even ever went camping.
I would put like rain in the tent sounds or rain in the forest and play those, uh, not
loud, but loud enough that, uh, you know, normal talking, uh, volume for inside of a
room and I would play those loudly because, um, you know, sleeping in, in silence, you
don't want to do that for a baby because they get used to that silence.
Uh, so are the equivalent of sleeping with a fan on your use to the hum.
So to me, it was that you're, I was used to the having the rain and camp sounds like that.
I, I wanted to do the same for him.
And I think it worked out.
Honestly, I do.
Um, he could sleep in just about any, anything right now.
He could, he slept during the fireworks at our fourth of July slept right through him
and we were maybe a hundred feet from it.
So, you know, I think that's really important too.
Uh, but yeah, that's other than that, getting him accustomed to camping and sleeping in
a tent and the sounds, um, that's very important, uh, too.
And I think that kind of wraps it up.
I appreciate you guys listening in on here.
This was a pretty long episode for what it was supposed to be, but I just had all this
information, I guess.
So thanks for tuning in to botches off road on the special little podcast about taking
your baby out, camping, overlanding and hiking.
And I hope to see you guys out here on that.
Some of these next episodes, you got some really cool stuff coming up.
We have some interviews coming up with some important people.
We just did an interview with Benji at newfound overland, formerly budget overland.
And we have a, uh, we have a, someone coming on here that's talking about some of the North
Carolina stuff, um, what she witnessed and some of the relief aid that some of our off
road groups provided.
So super happy to have her on here.
And that's just, uh, just a start, man.
This is only like our fifth, sixth, seventh episode.
So, uh, yeah, I mean, there's nowhere to really go, but up.
So thanks for tuning in.
Thanks for listening to botches off road.
Check out my socials, check out Alex's socials, check out Mark's socials, and we'll see you
next time.