3 season sleeping bags for kids?

[laika]

Hi All,

New to the site which is clearly great. We're about to start taking our kids (9 and 6 but familiar with trekking and tents) wild camping for the first time, probably Dartmoor in the first instance, with a view to the Pyrenees in future. Any advice on the best way to go for 3 season sleeping bags for little ones? As always, weight and compression important but not so much as keeping them warm.

[jus_young]

Hi and welcome to the forum :D Please jump over to the intro thread and say Hi to folks here http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?37-Introduce-Yourself-amp-Welcome-to-the-Community!

And with regards to your question, I have recently bought my son a Vango Ultralite 600 with those very qualities in mind. We have just spent the weekend down in Cornwall where he slept for two nights in a hammock and stayed warm with only a onesie and no additional coverage on the sleeping bag. I did wonder about just how good it would be as the filling does not seem as thick as some bags I have encountered but apparently it is some sort of reflecting micro fibre and he stayed as warm as me in my Rab down sleeping bag. The pack size when compressed is also very reasonable and not much bigger than my bag.

Linky http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/vango-ultralite-600-sleeping-bag-p196171

[laika]

Thanks for the heads-up - great advice! Have posted on the Intro thread now also - apologies!

[jus_young]

No apologies required, it is an easy one to miss and I certainly did miss it when I joined :ashamed:

[beefcrisps]

Dont know if I'm missing something, but If your not going too far from the car etc why not just get them a full size bag that you just fold underneath them adding to their ground insulation? But guessing you were looking for a 'small' bag/ full warmth recommendation?

[rik_uk3]

http://www.littletrekkers.co.uk/shop/index.php/flypage/12994/b8d10ab0a10cb7387b44475c819fbf4a worth a look.

[happybonzo]

What I did was to get an adult size bag and tie it off about half way up; that way the child cannot wriggle down too far inside the bag and suffocate

Although my pal's idea when asked to take his grand children on holiday with him has some merit. He said that he'd roll them up in an old sack and they could sleep under the Motorhome.

[Stevie B]

Hi mate and welcome to the forum.

I got this bag (http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-ridgeline-convertible-sleeping-bag-p194422) for my nephew and he absolutely adores it, so mch so he even takes it to bed with him!
It's an expanding bag, so as your chilld grows in length so too can the bag.

Cheers,
Stevie

[laika]

Thanks all - great advice from a great forum - we feel very lucky to have found it. The plan is to take the kids over the Pyrenees this Summer so we need to keep the volume and weight down. We're going to test drive a Vango and higear next weekend at Thruxton - will keep you posted on the results. Thanks again for the advice.......

[laika]

Well, we never got to Thruxton and couldn't get hold of either of the bags we'd intended to try. Instead we got to Dartmoor and the kids tested out the Vango Trail Lite 240 ( http://www.vango.co.uk/gb/trekking/354-trail-lite-240.html ). Very similar spec to the Vango Ultralite 600, great compression and not too heavy. Most importantly kept them warm but we did need to tie up the end for the 6 year old (thanks happybonzo!). Really impressive, nearly as warm as our British Army Arctic bags and around 700g lighter. So, in conclusion, I'm not sure if there's a better option for kids but a decent adult bag and some string does the trick.