Infant/Toddler FAK items

myright

myright

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Jan 31, 2008
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Alright fellas

We see FAK threads pop up all the time and we go over what goes in these FAKs for us and for our hiking partners, but we rarely talk about what we need in order to accomodate the special needs of an infant or a toddler.

As most of you know I recently had my first child who is now 2 months old. While I don't plan on hitting any hard trails with him, we do plan on heading out to some parks where we will be a decent distance away from our vehicle and possibly not around people (not like that would be an aid anyway)

Along with the normal FAK items and diaper bag items what items do you guys think need to come along.

The diaper bag stuff would include things like (among clothes, diapers, etc):
Thermometer
Aspiration bulb
Meds
Creams, etc.

What trauma and/or medical specific items need to be included? The assumption here will be that any special medical need items will automatically included (epi, etc.)

I'm interested in hearing what everyone has to say.
 
These aren't specifically medical/trauma items, but you may wish to include appropriate protective gear -- a floppy sun hat (absolutely critical), a light jacket with sleeves, etc -- as a backup to whatever your child might already be wearig, since you can't use sunscreens at that age. Also, some means of carrying the child hands-free (a sling or even a Baby Bjorn or, perhaps better, a Jeep carrier) would be extremely useful in that situation.
 
Sharp Phil said:
These aren't specifically medical/trauma items, but you may wish to include appropriate protective gear -- a floppy sun hat (absolutely critical), a light jacket with sleeves, etc -- as a backup to whatever your child might already be wearig, since you can't use sunscreens at that age. Also, some means of carrying the child hands-free (a sling or even a Baby Bjorn or, perhaps better, a Jeep carrier) would be extremely useful in that situation.
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I learned this lesson yesterday. We took him out to the pumpkin patch yesterday and hadn't even thought about the sun.... Typical new parents :eek: We ended up with him in the baby bjorn on my wife with a burp cloth over his head and he did fine.

Thanks for the input.
 
Awesome. The Bjorn provides good protection for the most part -- you're not the first to do the impromptu burp cloth tarp, ha ha. The nice thing about the Bjorn is that the little one can be seen from either side, but you can effectively prevent people from sticking their faces in there if you wish to.
 
Typical first aid stuff, my Family was camping and my Son who is 3-1/2 slipped on some rocks in the water and split his toe nail....OUCH! Not too bad, I just put some bandaids on it to prevent further splitting and away he went. I had my gear bag, which had that stuff in it. Once back at camp I could trim the nail...which got me thinking a pair of nail clippers and some tweezers would have been handy to have.
 
When they're infants, I've carried my sons in a Kelty backpack once they can hold their heads up. They're pretty protected, so I'm not too worried about cuts and scrapes or having anything special in a FAK. The biggest concern is clothing and keeping them out of the sun. Keeping a baby warm and dry can be a challenge in the woods.The baby isn't hiking, so he's got to be kept much warmer than the people walking. Bouncing around in a pack, both my sons have vomited on hikes and soaked their clothing, requiring a complete change. For a toddler, I don't have anything special in my kit. I'd love to hear what others have to say, there are probably situations I haven't thought of. I currently have a 3 year old, and a 9 month old and we love hitting the woods. It just means hiking VERY slowly to look at every rock and leaf and carrying twice as much clothes and snacks as I'd like.
 
rcinclair said:
When they're infants, I've carried my sons in a Kelty backpack once they can hold their heads up. They're pretty protected, so I'm not too worried about cuts and scrapes or having anything special in a FAK. The biggest concern is clothing and keeping them out of the sun. Keeping a baby warm and dry can be a challenge in the woods.The baby isn't hiking, so he's got to be kept much warmer than the people walking. Bouncing around in a pack, both my sons have vomited on hikes and soaked their clothing, requiring a complete change. For a toddler, I don't have anything special in my kit. I'd love to hear what others have to say, there are probably situations I haven't thought of. I currently have a 3 year old, and a 9 month old and we love hitting the woods. It just means hiking VERY slowly to look at every rock and leaf and carrying twice as much clothes and snacks as I'd like.
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I've acquired a back pack that the kid can fit in once he's a bit older and is able to hold his head up. There isn't a ton of room for other things in it so I'll have get creative for carrying water, etc. That'll have to probably go on my wife's back or I'll end up attaching an additional pack to the kid pack somehow.
 
myright said:
... I'll have get creative for carrying water, etc. That'll have to probably go on my wife's back or I'll end up attaching an additional pack to the kid pack somehow.
Click to expand...

Maybe a lumbar pack riding under the baby pack.
 
On my hike down Watatic We ran into a man with just that sort of set up Esav.

He was getting hauled up the mountain by his "killer beagle" :D
 
Advantage of a separate pack like that also is, you can access it without taking off the main pack.
 
Bring some hand sanitizer and/or soap. My 18 month old picks up everything........and I mean EVERYTHING. The nastier the better.
 
Whether I've used a front pack (for when they're really young) or a backpack, I always have some kind of walking stick or hiking pole. I feel alot more top-heavy with a kid pack and the last thing I want to do is fall, or even stumble, with a child strapped to me. walking sticks have saved me many times.
And, +1 on the hand sanitizer for toddlers and the nasty crap they find.
 
On thing that I would say is important is that if you go out with others make sure they know what have little ones around is like,

I have three ranging from 18 months to going on 6 in Dec, last summer we went to a national park with my sister and brother in law who at the time had no kids, my daughter(then 6-8 months old) was in the stroller and the boys then just 3 and turning 5 were walking, the wife am I have learned that with the kids walking, to just take are time and enjoy the moment, B-I-L not so patient, or understanding, when we took a good couple hours to do a three kilmometer trail he was complaining that we weren't going to have time to do the other 5 km and 4 km trails he wanted to do, when I laught and said have fun , the kids can't handle that he got very upset and told me how it was me beening lazy and hiding behind my kids, so we went to the 5 k trail and as I knew about half way through both boys were laying on the trail crying and not willing to walk another step, so needless to say I carried both boys out one on my shoulders and the other with his legs around my hips . Last time I went camping with them. needless to sat that we had words later when the kids weren't around.

As far as any special gear , extra toys and extra bedding(if your camping out)
and if your not hitting any hardcore trails you can get some decent off road type strollers that can carry a fair amount of gear and keep baby of the ground at night, as far as diapers and wipes go, one thing the wife and I found is to double up, you might look at it and say I won't need that many diapers but hey in this cause $h!t really does happen, and you will need them.

We have had are kids out basiclly from birth and hope it sticks with them for the rest of ther lives , and I would say the biggest thing we learned was to simply enjoy having little ones outdoors , watch them explore and teach them to enjoy the little things,

have fun
jimi
 
A bulb syrenge is a great piece of kit for kiddies. Some pedialite, sunscreen, and splinter forcepts. As well as some purel.

Be familiar with the procedures for clearing infant and pediatric airways, as well as infant and child cpr. They make kids barriers for CPR, but I dont care to carry one. A kid I wont have a problem not using one.
 
J.Wade said:
On thing that I would say is important is that if you go out with others make sure they know what have little ones around is like,

I have three ranging from 18 months to going on 6 in Dec, last summer we went to a national park with my sister and brother in law who at the time had no kids, my daughter(then 6-8 months old) was in the stroller and the boys then just 3 and turning 5 were walking, the wife am I have learned that with the kids walking, to just take are time and enjoy the moment, B-I-L not so patient, or understanding, when we took a good couple hours to do a three kilmometer trail he was complaining that we weren't going to have time to do the other 5 km and 4 km trails he wanted to do, when I laught and said have fun , the kids can't handle that he got very upset and told me how it was me beening lazy and hiding behind my kids, so we went to the 5 k trail and as I knew about half way through both boys were laying on the trail crying and not willing to walk another step, so needless to say I carried both boys out one on my shoulders and the other with his legs around my hips . Last time I went camping with them. needless to sat that we had words later when the kids weren't around.

As far as any special gear , extra toys and extra bedding(if your camping out)
and if your not hitting any hardcore trails you can get some decent off road type strollers that can carry a fair amount of gear and keep baby of the ground at night, as far as diapers and wipes go, one thing the wife and I found is to double up, you might look at it and say I won't need that many diapers but hey in this cause $h!t really does happen, and you will need them.

We have had are kids out basiclly from birth and hope it sticks with them for the rest of ther lives , and I would say the biggest thing we learned was to simply enjoy having little ones outdoors , watch them explore and teach them to enjoy the little things,

have fun
jimi
Click to expand...

Sounds like a crappy experience and there is some very good advice that came out of that.

The double up thing is a great piece of advice, we've been out before and have been down to one diaper - I could see how, if in the woods, it would be a very uncomfortable situation for a baby with no diapers. :eek:

Enjoy having the little ones outdoors :thumbup:

Thanks
 
j williams said:
A bulb syrenge is a great piece of kit for kiddies. Some pedialite, sunscreen, and splinter forcepts. As well as some purel.

Be familiar with the procedures for clearing infant and pediatric airways, as well as infant and child cpr. They make kids barriers for CPR, but I dont care to carry one. A kid I wont have a problem not using one.
Click to expand...

We've got the bulb. Good call on the pedialite and forcepts.

My MIL is a child CPR instructor and we will be getting certified very shortly. I wish I was still certified in adult CPR, but I haven't been to a class in quite some time.
 
Sharp Phil said:
The Bjorn provides good protection for the most part
Click to expand...

The Bjorn is great for infants but once they get older and bigger it's not so great. Once my son was past 4 or 5 months I definitely preferred the Ergo baby carrier over the Bjorn - it distributes the weight to the hips which makes hiking for any distance much more comfortable.

Bring an umbrella - it's tricky to fit your little one underneath your goretex jacket! :D

Hitting the trail at 9 weeks:

IMG_1592.jpg
 
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