babies and toddlers in motorhomes

[phantom]

We are looking into buying our first motorhome and are doing a lot of research at the moment. We know what we want from a motorhome: we want to spend under £20,000 (second hand obviously) fancy one with a washroom quite short and narrow no rear lounge Although there is just the two of us now we are hoping to start a family very soon. - what arrangements would you recommend to sleep babies and toddlers? What would be the best motorhome to look at and we are limited as we live in Northern Ireland. Thanks everyone.

[messerschmitt owner]

Make sure whatever you buy has three way belts in the rear, and that a car seat will fit - we took our old motorhome to an independent car seat supplier so that we could try numerous seats to get one to fit. Because of the cushions, a lap belt isn't really suitable for a car seat and we found that we had to put our daughter in the front and wife in the rear with our old Elddis. Current 'van has four three way and two lap belts. Having a motorhome is ideal if you have a child as you have space to change nappies, hot water to give them a wash and space aplenty to carry all of the paraphernalia of childhood. You also want a motorhome with a full height safety net on the overcab bed so that your child can sleep up there and you don't have to worry about them falling down, which is an issue with mid height beds (like the downstairs ones). You can get these easily as aftermarket items. Worth exploring if there is enough space to locate the portable prison (travel cot) somewhere in the van as you can use it while they are really young to contain them. If not, a quick tip is to find a way of clipping a sheet of harboard or mdf onto the end of the dinette and containing them in there when at a site. That way we did not have to worry too much about making the rest of the van child-safe. If the van you buy has a microwave you will be able to sterilise bottles easily on the move - once sterilised fill with boiled water and seal - these will keep for 24hrs and you can add powdered milk as and when required. We also carried the one use steri bottles for emergencies. We also took our nappy bin from home when on the move and emptied it when we returned. I'm sure there are lots of other tips and I'll post them as I think of them. We bought our first coachbuilt (an Elddis Autoquest 400) a year before we had our daughter and she's now 4yrs 8 months and we're onto a Rimor 747TC Whatever you do, best to buy a six berth van rather than a four so that you still have space inside- amazing how much junk a child needs. Campbell