Be Prepared (First Aid Kits in general)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	First Aid Kits in general
Date:	30/12/07 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You never know when you might need a kit

Disadvantages: You never know what you might need in a kit

My husband has always been one for safety. As a child and young adult he was actively involved in St John Ambulance Brigade and as a result we've always had an eclectic collection of bandages, slings and plasters around the house but, before we married, you'd never find basic medicines in the house. The household kit that my husband had had been packaged in a waterproof container, clearly labelled and was kept, rather sensibly, under the sink where we both knew about it. There is stayed. We then moved house and, ironically, the first time we actually needed to find a plaster the kit was nowhere to be found. When, a couple of days later it was located (needless to say the bleeding had stopped) we found that much of the perishable content had perished and, on closer inspection, it probably contained fewer of the items that were most needed and too many items that were highly unlikely to be needed.

The arrival of a new child spurred us into questioning whether we had the right stuff in our first aid kits, where they should be kept and how many we should have. We looked at some proprietary kits but found all of them to be wanting in some way. Most contained things that we already had plenty of in the house (such as scissors) but fewer of the consumable items that would need replenishing (such as plasters - what use is 1 plaster in a kit?). We therefore decided to make up our own kits, one for each car and one for home.

Items common to both kits:

1 - Plasters - a variety of sizes are included in each kit. In the car kits they are mainly waterproof plasters but in the home kit there are also fabric plasters.

2 - Bandages - in the car we just have a single crepe bandage and a triangular bandage for a sling but in the home kit there are a couple of sizes of crepe bandage, a triangular bandage and also a tubigrip.

3 - Antiseptic - at home we have crème and liquid antiseptic and, in the car, a spray antiseptic as it's easier.

4 - Micropore tape - a great way of sticking dressings but it can come in handy for fixing a variety of things!

5 - Sterile dressings - one large dressing in each kit with additional dressings in the home kit.

6 - Scissors and tweezers.

7 - Safety pins - both for keeping dressings on and useful for removing foreign objects.

Items in the car kit:

1 - Disposable gloves

2 - Camera (in case of accidents)

3 - Lighter for sterilising the safety pins if required

4 - Antihistamine crème - you never know when a sting might come!

5 - Wet wipes

6 - Penknife

Items at home

1 - not kept in the kit itself, but we keep a cold pack in the freezer for major bumps and scrapes.

2 - Digital thermometer

At home we also have a basically stocked medicine cabinet containing paracetamol, kaolin & morphine, an antihistamine crème, aloe vera gel (a variety of uses!) and, for the children, Calpol and a cough linctus.

Hopefully that should see us through most minor emergencies! Most items are already contained around the house, it's just a question of bringing them together in a clearly marked container.

Make sure that everyone knows where you keep your kits - you never know when, or why, you might need it!

Summary: Be prepared for most minor emergencies with a well-stocked clearly labled kit