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If you’re taking a preschooler camping in colder weather, this compact bag is your best option. There’s a sleeping-pad pocket on the back of the bag for added warmth and comfort; you do have to supply your own pad, though.
For kids who are older than about kindergarten age, the Wolverine is likely a better fit — it works for those up to about 4-foot-8.
If your family does a lot of cool or cold-weather camping, it could be worth it to get one of these Big Agnes bags for your kid. They both stand out for their built-in sleeping-pad sleeves, which will keep your child on the pad — and thus warmer and more comfortable — all night long.
Three available sizes work for a huge age range. Big Agnes makes kid bags in three sizes, all rated to 20 ˚F. The Little Red is made for kids up to 4 feet tall. The nearly identical Wolverine is for kids up to about 4-foot-8 (though, as we found with the REI Co-op Kindercone 25, this bag can fit kids a bit taller than that). And the adjustable Torchlight EXP Youth 20 is intended for those up to 5-foot-4 — but it is insulated with down and costs significantly more than the other two bags.
If we were buying a Big Agnes bag for a 2-year-old or small 3-year-old, we’d get the Little Red, assuming the kid would get at least two years of use out of it. For any child older than that, we’d likely go straight to the Wolverine (unless there’s a younger sibling who will also need a little sleeping bag in the future). A Boulder, Colorado, dad we know bought a Big Agnes bag for his son when he was just 1. “In tents, in sub-freezing temps, he’s cozy and never wakes up,” the dad wrote to us, praising the sleeping bag’s stay-put pad system.
They create a warmer, more comfortable setup. Big Agnes grew its reputation on high-quality sleeping bags with built-in sleeping-pad sleeves that — when stuffed with a sleeping pad you buy separately — eliminate the need for insulation in the bottom of the bag.
At first we thought the system seemed a bit much for little kids. But a couple of mid-30-degree February nights in Joshua Tree convinced us of the Little Red’s superiority. One 5-year-old tester would typically roll off of his sleeping pad in the middle of the night. It was nice to know that with this bag, his insulating pad was going to securely stay under his little, 37-pound body, significantly reducing the chance he’d wake up wedged between air mattresses — cold, confused, and begging to climb into bed with Mom and Dad. The Big Agnes system solved a problem that had never occurred to us needed solving.
It works with most standard-width camping pads. Any 20-inch-wide pad that’s less than about 4.25 inches thick will slot into the Big Agnes bags — and you might already own one. If not, Therm-a-Rest’s Z Lite Sol, the budget pick in our guide to the best sleeping pads, will fit in its regular or small version, and it’s a great choice for kids since it’s close to indestructible. Nemo Equipment makes a short version of its Switchback pad, and that’s another option, as is this self-inflating kid-size pad from REI.
These bags are lighter and pack down smaller than our other picks. The two smaller Big Agnes kids bags have a polyester ripstop shell with water-repellent coating, and they use a proprietary synthetic fill. They pack down smaller than the REI bags do, making them a good option for first backpacking trips. You can also purchase a compression stuff sack from Big Agnes to make them even more compact. The Wolverine bag weighs 2 pounds 4 ounces; that’s notably lighter than the similarly sized Kindercone 25, which weighs 3 pounds 3 ounces.
They’re impressively soft and comfortable. That proprietary synthetic fill feels impossibly downy and light — during our 2025 testing, kids reached for these bags again and again for movie snuggles and “caterpillar fights,” even with numerous other colorful and cute sleeping bags at their disposal.
As of 2025, all Big Agnes bags are made without PFAS. The bags have a discretionary warranty.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
They’re more expensive. Some parents may be hesitant to send their kid to a sleepover with pricey outdoor gear, and they end up buying a second, cheaper bag for playtime. We get that, but know Big Agnes bags are repairable and likely to survive some routine rough housing.
