Best Camping Cot for Kids: Sizes, Sides and Weight Limits

The best camping cot for a child is a low one: 9 to 12 inches off the ground, rated 75 lb or more, with a sleep surface at least 4 inches longer than the child, and a frame that does not rip the tent floor. For ages 4 to 8 that is a 48 inch cot like the Regalo My Cot or Joovy Foocot. For ages 8 to 12 it is a 54 to 62 inch cot, or a stackable bunk if two kids share the tent. For a child under 4 who still rolls in their sleep, “with sides” is not a feature, it is the whole decision: either a cot with mesh walls on all four sides, or no cot at all and a pad on the floor. No cot is a safe sleep surface for a baby.

Does a kid need a cot at all

Children under about 4 sleep fine on a foam pad and often better, because they cannot fall off a pad. A cot earns its place around ages 4 to 5, for three reasons: the child keeps rolling off the pad onto the cold tent floor, the weather is hot and air under the cot keeps them cooler, or the tent is crowded and the space under a cot holds the duffels. If none of those applies, skip it; a good pad costs less and packs smaller.

A cot is not a warmth upgrade. Cot fabric has no insulation and the air moving under it pulls heat from the sleeper, so in anything below 50F the child’s pad goes on top of the cot, not in the car. That changes the bag choice too; see sleeping bags for kids in cold weather.

The “with sides” question

Most kids’ cots have no rails. The fabric is stretched over a frame, the edge is a bar, and a child who rolls goes over it. From 9 inches that is a bump, a cry and a parent getting up at 2 a.m.; it is not an injury. From a 28 inch top bunk it can be.

For a toddler of 2 to 4 who is past the travel crib but still rolls, there are two honest options. The first is a cot with walls: the Baby Delight Bungalow has mesh on all four sides, so the child stays put, at the cost of 12 lb and a cot the child cannot share or sit on with a sibling. The second is to stay on the floor: a pad against the tent wall with a duffel on the open side, which is free and cannot be fallen from.

What not to do is improvise sides. Pillows or rolled blankets along the edge of a cot create gaps a small child can wedge into, and anything that raises the edge of a low cot lifts the fall height. If a cot has no walls, the child is old enough to stay on it or the cot is the wrong product.

Never put a baby on a cot, with or without sides. The surface is not firm and flat, and the gap between the fabric and the frame is an entrapment risk. A baby sleeps in a play yard or travel crib that meets the federal play yard standard; see camping with a baby: where do they sleep.

Sizes by age

The common kids’ cot is 48 inches long and 24 to 25 inches wide. A child outgrows it when their height passes about 46 inches, which for most kids is somewhere between 6 and 7. Joovy puts a 48 inch height limit on the Foocot explicitly.

Extra-long kids’ cots run 53 to 54 inches and carry an 8 to 10-year-old. Past that, a child is on an adult cot (72 to 75 inches) or a bunk. The Disc-O-Bed Kid-O-Bunk’s 62 inch sleep area fits a child to about 5 ft, which covers most 12-year-olds, and the two cots split apart into singles or a bench.

Width matters less than length for a child, but a 24 inch cot and a 20 inch pad leave no margin; a child who sleeps diagonally will have a knee on the frame.

Four cots that meet the constraints

Regalo My Cot

Ages 2 to 5 by the maker’s rating, 75 lb limit, 48 by 24.5 inches, 9 inches off the ground, 6.25 lb, folds to about 24 by 8 inches with no assembly. It costs about $30, which is less than a good pad. No sides, so it is for a child who stays where you put them. The fitted sheet it ships with is thin; put a pad on it in anything but summer. Check price on Amazon

Baby Delight Go With Me Bungalow Deluxe

The cot with walls: mesh on all four sides, 72 lb limit, 50 by 26 inch sleep area, a removable canopy rated UPF 50 for naps outside the tent, 12.2 lb without the canopy. Retailers list it from 15 months and up to 50 inches tall. It is the only cot here for a toddler who rolls, and the only one that works as a shaded day bed at the campsite. Check price on Amazon

Joovy Foocot

Joovy states both limits: 75 lb and 48 inches tall. The sleep surface is 48 by 25 inches at 9.5 inches high, the cot weighs 6.6 lb, and it folds to 24.5 by 6 by 8 inches. Steel frame, polyester deck, a sheet and a carry bag included, two-year warranty. It is the Regalo’s direct competitor at a higher price with a stated height limit, which is the number parents actually need. Check price on Amazon

Disc-O-Bed Kid-O-Bunk

Two cots rated 200 lb each, sleep area 62 by 28 inches, bottom cot 9.5 inches high and top cot 28 inches, 36.5 lb for the set, about $300. Stacked, two kids sleep in a 65 by 32.5 inch footprint; unstacked they are two singles or a bench with the side organizers. Disc-O-Bed does not publish a rail height for the top bunk, so treat the top as a bed for a child who has stopped rolling, generally 8 and up. Check price on Amazon

Protecting the tent floor

Cot feet are small and pointed and will wear through a tent floor in a season. Put something under each foot: tennis balls cut with an X, furniture coasters, squares of closed-cell foam, or an old yoga mat under the whole cot. Set the cot up before the tent fills with gear, and check that the legs are fully locked; most kids’ cots fold in the middle and a half-locked hinge is how a cot collapses when a child jumps on it.

Measure the tent floor against the cot’s footprint plus 18 inches of walkway. A 48 by 25 inch cot in a “4-person” tent with a 7 by 7 ft floor leaves room for one adult pad beside it and nothing else. The rest of the kit, by age, is in camping gear for kids by age.