Lessons Learned from our Test Run Camping Trip: Watch the Water Intake

Make sure the kids don't drink too much water at bedtime. We were on a two-night campout and on the first night, I got woken up around 4am. We had let the boys take the LifeStraw water bottle into their tent and apparently the six-year-old, who hasn’t wet the bed in ages, had decided to drink about a liter of water in the tent. Predictably, he peed in his sleeping bag during the night, which was now wet and smelly. I had his clean clothes in our tent, so I went out to wash him off and change him, then he crawled into the sleeping bag with his big brother.

Thankfully, the wet sleeping bag was the one synthetic one we had with us, and far easier to wash than down. We weren’t going to a laundromat the next day, though, so his brother offered to share the next night provided he wore a diaper to bed. I don’t think either of them were particularly comfortable on night two, but everyone managed to sleep and it gave me some things to think about for the big trip.

Just like at home, we made sure everyone used the bathroom before bed, which is usually enough to keep our beds dry, but I hadn't thought about how much they would drink inside the tent. We'd gone into our tents around 8pm and the kids stayed up later with little to do except drink water (I never let anyone take food into tents as the smell can attract animals, who you don't want visiting in the night).

So the lesson here is to not give the kids a full bottle and to only let them take small sips after they've peed and are in for the night. It also made me think that we should probably pack the synthetic bag over the down one as our second sleeping bag both because it's smaller and has a fitted sleeping pad and in case we need to wash it.