Beach Tips for Crawlers

By Jenny D - Charlotte Smarty Pants, and Rachel H

Jenny D: We just got back from our annual beach vacation. And as much as I love this annual trip, this year I was a little weary about Annie. She is 10 months old and not a great age for the beach. I remember three years ago at the beach when her sister was 10 months as well. It took us fifteen minutes to get sunscreen on and then I didn’t want to put her swimmy diaper on until we got to the beach so that she wouldn’t pee all over me. We would drag the picnic blanket, towels and toys and get set up on the beach. I would change her into her swimmy and the minute that I set her down on the blanket, she would crawl onto the sand, rub her face with her hands, get sand in her mouth and eyes and be done with the beach.

I mentioned this story to one of my friends and she offered up a great solution for non-walking toddlers at the beach. I took her advice and purchased a blow-up baby pool and SPF umbrella. We blew up the pool when we got down to the beach, set up the umbrella so that it covered the pool and had my three year old and her cousin fill up buckets of water for the pool. We placed Annie in the pool, out of the sun with a bunch of toys. It was like being in a bathtub and she just loved it. She sat in it for two hours and I got to relax in chair right next to her reading my book and watching Zoe play in the sand. It was the most relaxing beach trip yet. So relaxing that I forgot to take a picture of Annie in her pool (unfortunately, no fun picture for this post). I can’t tell you how many people walked by and admired her little set up. What a life!

Rachel H: I, too, remember having a crawler at the beach. It makes me cringe to think of their little knees dragging in the sand! Ow! Another idea that worked for us was using a large pop-up tent (pictured above). We took that to the beach and set up the Pack-N-Play underneath it. Babies can play in there for a while, or even nap if you are lucky! As you can see from the picture, we still take the tent to the beach now that our kids are older because the adults like to be in the shade as well!

We also liked to use an old sheet to spread out on the sand instead of a towel. It gave them a lot more room to crawl around without having to get into too much sand. It’s easy to shake out when you leave, too.

One more idea is to take an umbrella stroller (the inexpensive ones that you can purchase for about $10) down to the beach with you. We took one with us when my daughter was a baby because we had it in the car and it freed up some hands by piling bags in it. But then it ended up being the main attraction of the day as my two-year-old son decided to push my daughter up and down the beach on the wet sand. They had so much fun and my daughter laughed the entire time. My son thought he was hot stuff because he finally got to push the stroller without fear of running into a million things!

Got more ideas? Please share your tips with us for keeping your crawlers entertained on the beach!

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Posted by Triad Smarty Pants at 5:00 AM