If you want to sleep well at night on a camping trip you first need to make sure that your kids sleep well. You are responsible for your kid's warmth and comfort at camp.

However, children have different needs to adults when it comes to sleeping bags. The design of children sleeping bags are a lot more simpler.

Manufacturers usually make use of cheaper materials to make kids sleeping bags. The use of down insulation is rather uncommon. People don't buy high quality sleeping bags for their kids because they're likely to outgrow them in a few years.

However, price is not the only reason why synthetics are used instead of down. Synthetic fibers still retain their insulation properties when wet and can be easily washed repeatedly without damage. It's a much better material especially if your kids still wear nappies. Though uncommon, down sleeping bags for kids are not that hard to find but be prepared to pay a hefty bill.

For backpacking, weight is an important consideration. The difference in weight between down sleeping bags and synthetic sleeping bags may not be very big to adults but for kids who carry their gear it may be significant.

It may not surprise you that lower quality sleeping bags for kids are more popular with parents. The kids may not really need down insulation anyway because most kids sleep warmer than adults. This is due to the fact that kids have a higher metabolic rate so even when they lose heat fast because of their smaller bodies, they produce heat even faster.

Choose sleeping bags with a hood, draft tube and draft collar if you to be sure that your kids stay warm. The hood plays an important role is keeping your child warm because we lose most of our heat through the head.

If safety is of the upmost importance to you then you can't go wrong with The North Face Tigger because it has some important safety features. There are no cords to get tangled in and no way of adjusting the hood or chest section so that it closes off completely.

Heat can escape through the zipper coils but a draft tube (an insulation-filled tube that runs alongside the main zipper) prevents this from happening. Draft tubes are sometimes present to prevent heat from escaping up the sleeping bag.

Other well known brands that make sleeping bags for kids include L.L. Bean, REI, Lafuma, Deuter, Big Agnes and Integral Designs. There are others as well and they're quite easy to find.

Kids sleeping bags come in a variety of sophistication from cheap rectangular to models to ones that's suitable for arctic expeditions. Depending on the level of sophistication, kids sleeping bags can cost as much as the adult version.