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What to put in your First Aid Kit
First Aid kits need to be easily accessible in case an emergency situation arises. The kit should be well organised, ideally in a bag with compartments to allow you to quickly grab what you need. It is most important that the kit’s contents are good quality – often cheap kits will not be of sufficient quality should you need to use them.
Your kit should contain a First Aid book or instructions, and contents to treat: major and minor bleeding, burns, breaks and sprains.
The kit should not contain medication. First Aid kits for a car should be in soft padded cases or secured within the car.
Essential contents
Tough cut scissors
Strong enough to cut through clothes.
Face shield
To protect yourself when doing mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Gloves
Non sterile to protect you and sterile for treating someone with deep wounds or burns.
Sterile medical wipes
To clean a wound.
Wound dressings
Of various sizes.
Micropore tape
To secure dressings and tape fingers and toes, also useful for labelling things.
Calico triangular bandages
A couple of calico triangular bandages (ensure they are calico not a cheap version made of paper). These are some of the most useful things in your kit. Ideal, sterile, non-fluffy material to stop bleeding, can be used for slings and support bandages and far easier than a dressing to secure on head, knee and elbow wounds.
Eye dressings
Can also be used as small dressings for babies and toddlers.
Sterile saline vial
For irrigating a wound, or washing grit from an eye.
Crepe bandage
For supporting a sprain or strain.
Plasters
For short term covering of a minor wound (do not use for more than an hour or so as they cause wounds to become soggy).
Additional useful contents
Burn gel or a burns dressing
To apply to a burn after cooling.
Instant ice pack
At home you can use a bag of frozen peas. Ensure it is wrapped in a cloth as it can cause ice burns.
Foil blanket
To keep the casualty warm, crucially important in helping to prevent them going into shock. They should ideally be insulated from the ground and have this wrapped round them to retain their body heat.
Steri-strips
Great to help close gaping wounds. Always get major or deep wounds swiftly seen by a medical professional.
Sterile tweezers
For removing small splinters, that can easily be grasped and pulled out in the same direction that they went in (nothing else should ever be removed from a wound unless by a medical professional).
First Aid Kits recommended and sold through First Aid for Life
First Aid for Life provides this information for guidance and it is not in any way a substitute for medical advice. First Aid for Life is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made, or actions taken based on this information.