So, you want to take your baby hiking. Good on you! Children regularly exposed to nature, on average, have lower rates of criminality, drug use, and perform better academically than their shut-in counterparts {source: My intuition}.
But before you start buckling your little angel into their car seat, you should take a minute to read some of these helpful hints we’ve gleaned from months of successful parenting (successful in the sense that we haven’t jumped out of any windows).
- Check your diaper bag. Your parental difficulty level is directly tied to your level of preparedness. This is especially true in the middle of a long hike or road trip. See below:
- Challenge: Hungry baby
- Easy mode: Dump some formula into the pre-filled bottle you packed and feed the baby. Or have a cooler with breastmilk at the ready. Done.
- Hard mode: Wrestle a mother wolf into submission and let your baby feed from her like the legendary Romulus and Remus
- Challenge: Hungry baby
Basically, pack everything you might need and then some. Better to end up throwing your back out lugging all that junk around than to be eaten by a shewolf. There’s no way workers comp is gonna pay out for that.
- If you like hiking, don’t plan to go on a long hike with the baby. If you do, you will soon hate hiking. Baby weight is deceptive. I’ve rucked 10+ miles with 60lb of junk on. That was less strenuous than a 2 mile hike with a 25lb baby strapped to me. What is the cause of this physics defying phenomenon? I don’t know. It may remain a mystery to me forever like magnets or human empathy. Nevertheless, plan on short hikes.
- Carry a walking-stick when hiking. This is actually just good advice in general. Mainly because it’s far less anxiety-inducing to tear down spider webs with a stick than your face.
- Be sure to put sunscreen on the baby. Unless you’re one of those pageant moms. A healthy glow might give your baby the edge!
- Use bug spray. There are tons of natural bug spray options for your baby.
Fun fact: Did you know Sacagawea carried her baby with her during the Lewis and Clark expedition? That’s nuts. Almost as nuts as trying to spell Sacagawea without spell check
