Keeping Baby Cool on Boat

[jslipher]

Ok Dads (and Moms). I’d like to hear/see some of your ideas for keeping your baby cool and comfortable on the boat. This is our first child and we want to include him in the things we love, but of course we want to keep him comfortable and protected as well. Does anyone have any examples of what they’ve done to accomplished this?

[MTRBTR]

I think the biggest thing is shade. Get a Bimini if you don’t have one. We stage off the shore a lot so I bought one of those tailgating tents from Costco. It has served us well.

[funkster]

Shade is always good! Another thing we’ve done is to submerge their PFD and then put it on. This works the best if you put on a light long sleeve shirt. It also works good if you have a couple PDFs so you can control if they start to get to cold. Also, if you put down a damp towel it works the same. One other thing beside blocking direct sunshine is to keep them hydrated with cooler water. This will help cool them down internally.


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[cedarcreek216]

First things first, make sure you chose a safe and COOL life jacket. We found the neoprene, while we as adults all like them the best, is very hot, sticky and almost suffocating on a baby. We found the foam jacket from REI, the yellow one, to be both our kids favorites. It has a low V in front so it doesn’t run up on their face and it is very light so doesn’t heat them up. That jacket with the baby in their carrier, not buckled in, on the floor under the bimini was the ticket to a very happy day. Keep moving as much as possible to use the wind to cool them off too. And of course the often float in the water was great. Don’t forget to use swim diapers, not real diapers. They don’t work as well for keeping things in the diaper, but they are cooler and will not expand to like three times the size and weight like regular diapers do.

Both ours have been on our boat since 5 months old and it is the only life style they know and all they want to do in the summer. Happy parents here for sure.


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[d_nodixon]

Already said, but wind, shade and water. Both ours have been on the water since 6 months. A hat full of river water while sleeping is great, as well as cool bottle of water next to the body helps also.

I would put ours by my feat under the helm while sleeping. Put some towels downs for a little mat and good to go. Always shade down there

What part of the country you in? South Louisiana. Don't get much hotter.

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[d_nodixon]

Also, the most difficult thing is probably getting a comfy life jacket.

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[DealsGapCobra]

I bought a 12v fan, added a cigarette plug, mounted it to a stand and positioned it to blow on my daughter. That and shade worked great.

Edit - Here is a link to the fan.
https://www.amazon.com/Hopkins-SP570...gateway&sr=8-3

[jslipher]

This is all great advice. Thank you!

[dhanni848]

Done everything others have done especially the small fan. If it starts getting warm make sure to go for a ride down the water to get some breeze. Get them in the water early and often to cool off. Our son hit the lake early as well, and from day 1 put him in the water in a PFD and a blow up mesh float with a shade cover.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073G35NCF...ing=UTF8&psc=1

[patoloco]

Had both of our kids out since infants and agree with all of the above with priorities around comfortable neoprene jacket and bimini. When our kids were super little we actually put them in an inflatable duck tub that fit perfectly in the walkway under the bimini when we were going slow or didnt get in the water. It kept them corralled, and we could put water in it for playtime.

https://www.amazon.com/Munchkin-Whit...ay&sr=8-3&th=1

The swim platform was always the best play place though, with lots of floaty toys.

[72Miles]

Don't forget sunscreen and hydration.

[homer12]

Cedar creek, can you post a link to the REi foam vest you mentioned? Would love to look at that


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[cedarcreek216]

Looks like they changed the colors, but this is the same vest with updated colors.

https://www.rei.com/product/131863/s...oddlersinfants



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[srock]

Get the childs vest at walmart or amazon. It looks to be a very similar if not the same vest at 1/3 the cost and non-neopreme to keep it from getting hot.

[bandit628]

Get the childs vest at walmart or amazon. It looks to be a very similar if not the same vest at 1/3 the cost and non-neopreme to keep it from getting hot.

This might be a dumb question but for baby life jackets you don't want neoprene? Non neoprene are cooler? (Having my first one in June)

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