The summer camp kit
Seven things for a summer day camp, each one already a pick on one of our guides. Save the whole kit to your list in one tap, then buy each one from its own link.
- In this kit
- 7 products
- Roughly
- $130 at last check
- Good for
- Day camp, ages 3 and up
Save the whole kit to My List
7 in-stock picks, filed under this kit. A shopping plan, not a cart — you still buy each one from its own link.
A camp day is sun, bugs, shared surfaces and a packed lunch, usually all before you pick them up. Everything here is already a pick on one of our guides, linked beside it, so this page only has to say which of those picks the day calls for.
If a pick goes out of stock after this page is published, it stays on the page with its card marked, and Save kit leaves it off your list. Water is the one item missing here, because our bottle pick was unavailable when we checked: our bottles guide says what to look for in the meantime.
Sun
The category worth the most attention on a day spent outside.
Sunscreen for the day
Blue Lizard Kids, the overall pick on our sunscreen guide: titanium dioxide 8% and zinc oxide 10%, fragrance-free, with a faint cast that doubles as a check that the ears and nose got covered.
How we pick sunscreen for kidsA stick for faces and ears
Zinc oxide 20%, no drips and no sticky hands. Reapply every two hours and after every swim, whatever the front of the bottle claims; the stick is the one that actually gets reapplied.
The sunscreen guide
Bugs
Bug repellent, ages three and up
Repel plant-based lemon eucalyptus, 30% oil of lemon eucalyptus on its EPA-filed label: the DEET-free active with real efficacy data behind it. Not for children under three.
What to look for in bug repellent
Clean hands
Hand sanitizer for the backpack
EO unscented: 62% ethanol per the maker, no fragrance ingredient on its inactive list, sold as six 2 fl oz bottles, small enough for a camp bag.
The hand sanitizer guide
Lunch
For a camp where lunch comes from home.
A lunch box with no lining to ask about
LunchBots Medium Duo: 18/8 stainless with two compartments and a stainless lid. Not leak proof; LunchBots recommends packing dry foods only.
The lunch gear guide
Manufacturer statement checked · source
$22.99View on AmazonReusable snack bags
Bumkins: OEKO-TEX certified fabric, tested by third-party labs to standards that include lead, phthalates and BPA. It publishes what it tests to rather than claiming zero lead.
The lunch gear guide
For older campers
Only if your camper has already started wearing deodorant.
Deodorant
Each & Every unscented, listed as EWG Verified in EWG's own directory. EWG Verified is a program brands apply and pay to join, so read it as a company choosing to submit and pass.
The deodorant guide
Not for these situations
- Combination sunscreen-and-repellent products — Sunscreen needs reapplying far more often than repellent does. A combined product forces you to over-apply one or under-apply the other.
- Oil of lemon eucalyptus on children under three — The repellent in this kit is not for children under three. For under-threes, our repellent guide suggests skipping repellent chemistry altogether: mosquito netting, long sleeves, and avoiding dawn and dusk.
How we choose
Nothing in this kit was picked for the kit. Every product is already a pick on the guide linked beside it, where the reasoning and the label we read are written out in full. The kit only decides which of those picks a day at camp actually calls for.
- Already a pick on a SafeMama guide, for the reason that guide gives
- Something a camp day actually uses, not a general wish list
- In stock when we last checked. If a pick goes out of stock later, its card is marked and Save kit leaves it off your list; we do not swap in a product we have not checked against our criteria
Common questions
Every source we cite is checked against our criteria first — see how we check our sources.