In my previous post about the inventory of my travel bag I promised an inventory of my travel first-aid kit.
Many places sell pre-made first-aid kits. In general these are best avoided; you can do better by assembling your own, avoiding useless cheap stuff and making sure you have everything you might need. Here are the current contents of my first-aid kit, with links to Drugstore.com where appropriate.
Band-aids. This is the obvious one. I take a couple boxes of Band-aids, remove them from the boxes (they will get crushed), and keep them in a rigid plastic Ziploc container. I like the flexible cloth ones, and the Activ-Flex ones, including the larger size.
Sterile bandage pads. Larger than Band-aids, like this.
First-aid tape. Cloth tape and adhesive tape.
Scissors. I recommend scissors as a part of the general travel bag, so those can do double-duty as your first-aid scissors.
Neosporin antibiotic ointment. You may be familiar with the TV ads where the obsessive, overprotective moms have their Neosporin spray ready as they hover oppressively over their playing children. I just use the tube of gel like a normal person.
Solarcaine. Burn relief gel, mainly for sunburn but useful for mild burns of other kinds as well.
Burn pads. These things are great to put under a bandage on a burn. You can cut them down to the right size with your scissors. They make a burn feel better immediately.
Iodione swabs. These SwabPlus swabs are like regular first-aid cleaning swabs, but with a hollow handle containing iodine. Bend it to break the seal and one of the tips is soaked with a little iodine. I can't find them at Drugstore.com at the moment, but they are on Amazon.
Tweezers.
Aspirin and any other medication you generally use, like antacid.
Many people include latex gloves, and a breathing barrier for administering CPR. If the kit isn't part of a larger travel bag that includes soap, then soap is a good addition.
These few things don't take up much space, but you'll be glad to have them, when the need arises.
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