Five Items You Should've Had In Your First Aid Kit

By Adelia Ladson

I grew up with a First Aid Kit. It seems an odd statement to make but it’s true. There was a First Aid Kit in our home always and it was always stocked with everything we needed to fit the area we were living in, at the time. We moved around because my father was in the Army. When he retired, the First Aid Kit was placed in a cabinet in the laundry room and has been in the same place for decades. The supplies in it are, of course, refreshed and updated but it is still the same bright blue, hard-sided box with a red cross on it that I grew up with.
However, having a First Aid Kit in your home doesn’t do you much good if you don’t have everything you need in it to fit a variety of different emergency situations. A few adhesive bandages, some antiseptic wipes and a pair of tweezers just doesn’t cut it. Hopefully, most of you have a pretty decent kit because you realize the importance of being prepared. (If you don’t have one at all, stop right now and get one. I suggest the Elite First Aid Kit for 16 People.) There are some things, though, that you should add to your kits that you may have overlooked.

Make sure your First Aid Kit is complete.

First Aid Manual

If you don’t have some sort of First Aid Manual in your kit, then you could be flying blind. Sure, we all know a few basics of first aid but do you know what to do in every situation? No, of course not. Having a guide that you can reference quickly is important. Also, if one of your youths or teen-agers needs to provide first aid because you are not able to or are not at home, this will be invaluable to them and you. I, personally, really like the Trailblazer First Aid Quick Reference Guide. Any good First Aid guide will do. Just make sure you have one.

Having the right tools is critical in an emergency.

Surgical Steel Tools

When you’re doing something, you generally make sure that you have the right tool for the job. So, make sure your First Aid Kit does, too. Especially, the one you take with you camping and hiking. Aside from the bandages and antiseptic wipes, you need good Stainless Steel Surgical Tools like scissors, tweezers, a needle probe and even a scalpel blade. If you’re at home, you may be able to adapt if you don’t have these things but when you’re out in the wild, you don’t want to wish that you did. There are so many emergencies which can be dealt with quite efficiently as long as you have the right instruments. You can deal with everything from removing splinters and stingers to lancing and draining a blister that needs to be dealt with immediately. These are “mini surgeries” so make sure you have what you need to perform them.

The Israeli Bandage is a must-have for your kit.

Trauma Kit or Israeli Bandage

When it comes to more life-threatening emergencies, where you need to hold things together until professional medical attention can be provided, it’s important to have medical supplies at your disposal that will do just that. One of the major threats that you can face is profuse bleeding. There are ways that you can stabilize a person by stopping or slowing the bleeding enough until help arrives. The Rapid Response Kit is a compact package that haves everything you need to respond to a blood loss emergency. Just drop a couple in your home kit, vehicle kit and camping kit because they really don’t take up much space at all. Another alternative is the Israeli Bandage that has been used by military medics and emergency medical technicians for years.

Emergency Survival Blanket

You are stranded in your car during a blizzard, and because the road conditions are so bad, it’s going to take some time before you’re rescued. You are stranded because your vehicle just quit on you. No power whatsoever and nothing happens when you turn the ignition. It’s getting darker because you were on your way home from work, which means the temperature will drop even more. Do you have that Emergency Survival Blanket in your vehicle’s First Aid Kit? If you live in an area that has snow storms, you should. It could be the difference between making it until help arrives and freezing to death in your car. This blanket will reflect 90% of your body heat back to you and is a must-have for your camping or bug-out gear, too.

Fish Antibiotics

Without a well stocked cache of broad-spectrum antibiotics, it’s just a matter of time before your beloved pet fish falls victim to bacterial disease, which spreads readily and rapidly in calamitous times when water treatment systems are offline and hygiene takes a backseat to survival. Thankfully, you can easily cure most common bacterial ailments with amoxicillin. Having Fish Mox in your First Aid Kit will be a life-saver. It’s manufactured using the same quality standards for safety and potency as any antibiotic labeled for human use, as verified by its USP grade seal. You can, thus, count on it to provide your dearest pets with the same caliber of care you’d get from your own trusted physician or pharmacist. It's a must-have for every aquarium, home, RV, emergency shelter, supply cache or bug-out bag