Hiking with Baby (with Pack List)

I have always been an outdoor enthusiast. Therefore, of course, the man I married had to love hiking! When we decided to have a child we were determined to continue hiking together, now as a family. There are several challenges when hiking with a baby, and even more when hiking with our now active toddler. We needed to be able to carry diapers, wipes, snacks, water, and, most importantly, our son.

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Hiking is a favorite activity for us. It gets everyone outdoors and is great exercise. Plus our son gets to connect with nature in a unique way that simply doesn’t happen any other way. Earth Day is a great day to hike and often marks the beginning of our hiking season. Really any day with halfway decent weather is a great day for hiking though! If you are thinking about hiking with your babies, you will need to be prepared.

A Hiking Pack

We needed a steel frame carrier pack that he could comfortably ride in. After looking and researching several different packs we decided on the Deuter Kid Comfort 2. This pack has so many pockets that we easily fit everything we needed, keeping the most important stuff in hip and side pockets so it was more accessible. It has a padded 5 point harness to strap him in securely. There are stirrups for his feet if he’s not happy with them dangling and has an adjustable height so that it accommodates both taller and shorter children up to 45 lb.

Our little guy will be able to ride in style for a while. The side open up as well, making it easier to put him in and take him out of the pack. For extra comfort, the Deuter Kid Comfort 2 has a soft chin pad to protect their sensitive little chins. Bonus that it is removable and washable! We found it worth it to buy the additional sunshade which attaches to the top. My son is very pale so he needs as much sun protection as we can provide. We also got a 1.5-liter water bladder that fits nicely in one of the pockets and has a tube running along the shoulder strap to drink from.

The main drawback to this pack is that it doesn’t adjust small enough to for my 5’1″ frame so my husband is the only one that can use it. Otherwise, I love it and would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to do some serious hiking with a young child.

Dressing the Baby

Dressing our son for hiking is all about layers. In the woods you have to protect yourself from insects, so you want to cover as much skin as possible, using lightweight layers. A good sun hat with UPF is a must. My son has the Sunday Afternoons hat which is absolutely perfect! Its very light with a wide brim and a flap that covers his neck. Plus it is rated with 50+ UPF! It has a tear away chin strap so that it won’t strangle our son and also won’t blow away. In order to fit different head sizes, it also has an adjustable strap on the back.

Our First Hiking Season

The first summer of hiking with our son, he was only about 6 months old. We would have to stop every couple hours so that I could nurse him and so he could have a break from the pack. This would be the same for bottle-fed babies, you would just have extra to pack. One of the major benefits of breastfeeding is that you carry food with you wherever you go! Luckily the Deuter pack was so comfortable for him that he would actually take a nap in it! This would allow us to hike longer and further than we expected as we would use this time to make more progress.

Our Second Hiking Season

The second summer as a lot more challenging. Now we had a squirmy, curious 1.5-year-old boy on our hands. It was easier to feed him since he was eating on his own, however, we still had to stop more frequently to let him out of the pack to move. He would start getting wiggly and throwing his weight around, which would put my husband off balance and make walking much more difficult for him. This made for some really slow hiking. At this age, we found it is important to stick to the wider, well-marked trails that we could allow him to walk on and explore. We would do about 30 minutes in the pack and then about 30 minutes of him walking and exploring. Our hikes were a lot shorter but it was still a lot of fun!

But What Do I Pack?

The big question with hiking with a baby is what you need to pack. When we would hike before having a child, we would pack the bare minimum, some water, snacks, first aid kit, and maybe bug spray. The lighter our packs the easier the hike would be. When we started to hike with our son we kept adjusting our pack list. At first, we tried to do minimal packing and kept finding that there was something else we would need. If we hadn’t packed it, we’d have to end the hike and go back. This was not working so we started packing more and more. The list is a little long but we found that it is better to pack a little more to be well prepared than to realize you needed something you don’t have. This is a list of what we pack now.

Hiking Pack List

Items marked with an “E” are needed for everyone

• hiking pack (Deuter Kid Comfort 2)
• sun hat – E (we like the Sunday Afternoons Hat for baby)
• sunglasses – E
• sunscreen – one for yourself and one baby specific (I use babyganics)
• bug spray – one for yourself and one baby specific (I use babyganics)
• small blanket to sit on – for eating and changing baby
• burp cloth x 2 (only if nursing/bottle feeding)
• diapers – I take 1 for every 2 hours we plan on hiking just in case (don’t want to run out!)
• wipes
• bottles, formula, and related supplies (if you bottle-feed)
• hand sanitizer (portable size)
• snacks – E
• sippy cup with water
• toy/teether that you can attach to the pack
• lunch – E (we usually do sandwiches)
• full water bladder(s) for hiking pack
• extra socks, pants, and long sleeve shirt for baby (we’ve had both spit up and diaper explosions!)
• outer layer for baby (depending on weather and season, may need a sweater or raincoat)
• sunshade
• bubbles (you’d be surprised how useful these can be when baby gets wriggly in the pack)
• camera (have to document!)