Canoeing with a One Year Old

Until your baby is ready to sit on their own, canoeing with a baby is relatively simple (if you have canoe experience). Or that has been our case anyways. Both our daughters have (usually) enjoyed lying in the bow of the canoe, covered by (our homemade) canoe bow cover, allowing the sound of the water and the swaying of the canoe to rock them to sleep. We were pleasantly surprised with the amount we were able to canoe with our first daughter in the summer of 2020. Her age at this time ranged from 2 months to 6 months.

Flash forward to the next summer with a 1 year old- and this was a different beast. She no longer wanted to lay down. Or be covered. Or wear her life jacket (at first). Or sit down. Or be still for that matter. And when you couple that with the inability to communicate and the stubbornness of a toddler, we soon realized that everything we thought we knew about canoeing with babies needed to be thrown out the window. We needed to start all over and figure out a way to canoe with a toddler. (Now that we have a two year old and have completed our first canoe trip of the 2022 summer, I can honestly tell you that one years old is by far the hardest age.)

So here are some ideas we figured out (by trial and a lot of error) throughout our canoe season with a one year old.

1) Take it slow Get them used to the canoe in your yard before the water. Make sure your first time on the water is near prime conditions and flat or slow water. Your first time on the water should also be a relatively short paddle. If things go well, you can start to increase your duration in future paddles.

2) Tie toddler items into the canoe

I lost count of the times my daughter threw things out of the canoe as we paddled. Water bottles, shoes, soothers, water toys were all items she got joy out of tossing out. It did help us work on our technical skills as we did quick turns and manoeuvres to retrieve them haha.

3) Less is more

To add onto point two, sometimes a bucket and a toy (tied to a string) is enough to keep them entertained. In fact, by the end of summer our daughter’s favourite activity while we canoed was to throw rocks she had collected on shore back into the water.

4) Adjust your expectations

Sometimes this means turning your five day canoe trip into a 2 day canoe trip based on your child’s behaviour/enjoyment or paddling conditions. Other times this means more stops, slower paddles, or one person doing the brunt of the work. And sometimes it means cancelling a trip altogether.

5) Baby in the bow

We have found that the best spot for a one year old is in front of the person in the bow. This way the bow paddler is able to help out and attend to the toddler if need be while the stern paddler steers and continues to paddle, which is definitely the safest option. She rotated between sitting, standing (and holding on), and leaning back against me. We used a Z Lite Therm-a-rest folded up for her to sit on for comfort (which also doubled as her sleeping mat in the tent).

6) Snacks!

Keep a bag of snacks readily available behind the seat of the bow paddler. Easy food items such as fruit pouches, gold fish, veggie straws, etc are some of our favourites.

7) Life Jacket Safety

This should be a no brainer but make sure the life jacket is worn at all times in the canoe. It's a good idea to get them used to it by wearing it around the house multiple times before the first trip. With both our daughters, we have used the Salus Bijoux Infant Vest which is made for infants as small as 9 lbs.

All things aside, it was amazing to see the comfort level and familiarity our daughter gained in the canoe throughout the summer season. And we were grateful to share some epic backcountry memories with our daughter throughout her curious and fun stage of being a one year old!