CAMP Bambino Full Body Harness Review (2026)

What it is

The Bambino is a full body harness from CAMP, an Italian brand with a long history making climbing safety gear, designed specifically for young children rather than adapted from an adult design. Unlike a standard sit harness, a full body harness wraps around the shoulders and torso as well as the waist and legs, which matters for small kids because their center of gravity sits higher and a sit harness alone can let them tip upside down if they fall or hang. It is built as a one-size design meant to fit a wide age and size range of younger children, roughly from about age three up through early elementary age, rather than requiring separate sizes.

Fit and adjustment

CAMP built the Bambino with six points of adjustment across the waist belt, leg loops, and shoulder straps, which lets one harness stretch to fit a fairly wide range of small body shapes rather than needing multiple sizes on hand. The waist belt, leg loops, and single sternum tie-in point are color coded, which is a small but genuinely useful detail for gyms and camps where staff or parents are fitting many different kids through the same harnesses in a day and need to check things quickly and correctly. The pre-threaded, auto-locking buckles are meant to be fast to adjust while still resisting accidental loosening, and elastic retainers help keep the loose webbing tails from a fidgeting child working themselves undone.

Safety design

The defining feature of a full body harness like the Bambino is the single tie-in point at the sternum rather than at the waist, which keeps a hanging child upright and facing forward instead of risking an upside-down or backward tip that can happen with a sit harness on a small torso. This is the main reason full body harnesses are the standard recommendation for young children in climbing gyms, summer camps, and aerial ropes courses. The auto-locking buckles reduce the chance of a harness loosening mid-session without someone deliberately opening it, which matters given how much children move, wiggle, and climb in and out of harnesses during a typical session.

Build and durability

The Bambino uses a fairly basic webbing construction without the extra foam padding that has started to appear on some newer kids harnesses aimed at longer wear or bigger falls, so very young or sensitive kids may notice the webbing more on longer sessions. That simplicity is also part of why it holds up well to heavy rotation through gyms and camps, where a harness might get buckled and unbuckled dozens of times a day by different children of different sizes. Because it is designed as a one-size harness for younger kids, it is meant to be phased out once a child grows enough to safely move into a properly sized kids sit harness, rather than growing with the child indefinitely.

Who should buy it

The Bambino fits climbing gyms, summer camps, and ropes course operators that need a rugged, quick-to-fit harness for cycling many young children through top-rope or belay stations in a single session, thanks to its color-coded adjustment points and auto-locking buckles. It also suits parents of young climbers who want a proven, purpose-built kids harness rather than trying to improvise with an adult harness sized down. Families or programs that want extra cushioning for longer wear, or that are outfitting slightly older kids who are ready for a sit harness, should look at padded full body options or a dedicated kids sit harness instead, since the Bambino is built around simplicity and a younger age range.

Frequently asked questions