Fold-up Camping Baby Gear Review

May 16, 2012 at 8:53 am

G’s Nana (Grandmother) has a secret super power. She has the amazing ability to locate the most unique fold-up camping baby gear that has ever been made. Some of this gear she bought for us, some of it we bought ourselves, all of it got tested out in real-world situations on our family camping trips over the last 18 months.

Hanging in the Go-Pod

KidCo Go-Pod
From the makers of the ubiquitous PeaPod, comes another fun piece of outdoor kid gear. The Go-Pod is a collapsable stand-up play area, with a seat for the kiddo, two cup holders, webbing attachment points for toys and a heavy-duty nylon floor below it. It does not have any springs or bouncy-ness to it, but it does have an adjustable height, and is rated for babies “from 4 months to walking.” The Go-Pod folds up into a bag about the same size and weight of a normal camp chair as well.

I liked that the chair had a floor below it, so baby need not be wearing shoes to play here. G really enjoyed putting things in the cup holders and generally messing around with the seat itself more than anything attached to it.

We did have a few issues, though. There is no support between the table-area and the seat, so the whole thing tends to sag down in the middle if the baby is not standing. When we first put G in there (around 5 months), the Go-Pod just seemed HUGE and it looked like it swallowed him whole! And since he was a pretty active kid, by the time he was crawling (10 months), he was not thrilled with being kept contained in the chair.

So, for us, the Go-Pod had a pretty short use-window. I stuck G in there this weekend for the photo (above) and while he did fit great, I got the “Get me out of here!” sign pretty quick. Looks like it’s time for our Go-Pod to move on to another camping baby!

Lucky Bums Moon Chair

Lucky Bums Moon Chair
For the first of I’m sure many small camping chairs for G, his Nana brought us Lucky Bum’s Moon Chair. This is a pretty cool little seat with a papason-like design. We actually had this in our living room for most of the spring, and we’ve gotten it out for G on our last two camping trips. It has a very sturdy ring around the seat, and folds up to about half the size of a normal camp chair.

Having Moon Chair Issues

However, even with all of the playtime G gives it, he still hasn’t figured out how to climb in and sit down with out the thing tipping over on him. If he wants to sit in this chair, we pretty much have to hold it in place while he climbs in. This could be a coordination issue, and I’m interested to see if he gets a hang of it later this summer. But the seat design is pretty inherently unstable, and might be better for older kids to relax in.

Ciao! Baby fold-up camp high chair

The Ciao! Baby Portable High-Chair
This is the most recent addition to our camping gear, and already I love it. The seat is sturdy, locks down with metal latches, and includes buckle straps to keep your kiddo in place. The tray area is covered in easy-to-clean plastic, and kept tightly in place, so seems to be able to support a decent amount of food. G had his breakfast al Fresco at our campsite last weekend, and he really dug this high chair.

G in the camping high-chair

This is just a well designed piece of fold-up camp furniture that I have been really amazed and impressed with. I have very little negative to say about it, except that it is the biggest and heaviest of the furniture when folded up (see comparison below) and is a bit expensive at $67.99. But, since it is rated for up to three years old, we will probably get A LOT of use out of this one.

Right to Left: Moon Chair, Go-Pod, Ciao! Chair, and a regular Walmart Adult Camp Chair

So, there you have it. Three pieces of interesting, stylish, and very useful camping furniture for your adventure kiddos! Check them out, and enjoy!