Give Kids a Real First Aid Kit
First Aid kits are sort of a gateway to prepping. They never freak anyone out, and zero people think that having a good first aid kit is a bad idea. It is just plain old common sense.
Giving our kids first aid kits has been HUGE for us. My wife and I have two grade school age kids, and they have had their own first aid kits since they were little. Originally, it was really just that they loved Band-Aids. They would constantly ask for Band-Aids for imaginary injuries, because they loved them. We have some adorable videos of my son carefully bandaging his sister’s imaginarily injured finger.
Over time, we helped them build “real” first aid kits, and it has helped a TON. We tailored them for the kid, and they often get first aid stuff in their stockings at Christmas, or get excited to get something from the travel section at Target. They now have opinions about which Band-Aids are best, understand how to clean wounds and use Bacitracin or Neosporin, and know how to deal with basic stuff. I believe that first aid kits are a really nice gateway to having more prepared kids. I wrote a topic on prepared kids you might also like to read.
Naturally, if our kids have a real injury, we handle it ourselves, and we don’t outsource that care to our other kid, but we have gotten to where our daughter (6) will wake up our son (9) for help with a bloody nose in the middle of the night instead of us. That’s a win. I will put a list of the stuff we have in our kids first aid kits lower down in this article.
Here’s a picture of my daughter’s First Aid kit in her bugout bag (I took it out for the picture):
My daughter’s First Aid Kit. Notice the Bloody Nose strip, the Bacitracin, and the assortment of BandAids (gotta have choices!)
These first aid kits are the ones my kids have in their bugout bags. But they get used for hiking trips, camping, and other things as well. They also know where their bugout bags are, so they know there is always an accessible place to find first aid (Note: you HAVE to make it clear that everything goes BACK in the bugout bag!)
My son’s bugout bag has a nice slot for the first aid kit on the upper outside. My daughter’s bag is a little smaller, so her’s goes on the inside.
And for fun, here’s a side by side “pouch explosion" for my son’s current first aid kit. His has a few things my daughter’s does not. Namely tweezers and Benadryl and more Cortisone. He is older (can handle tweezers) and has more issues with reactions and itching. We also trust him to understand Benadryl dosage.
You can put first aid for kids in anything sort of container you want, but we use these cheap little pouches. I like them because they are soft, not plastic feeling, have internal organizing pouches, and open all the way up clamshell style. Many small first aid pouches have a single zipper, and are more like a pencil case, which is harder to organize. They are small enough to tuck in their go-bags (for pictures of their actual go-bags, go check out my thoughts on Prepared Kids), and can go to school with them as well. And they come in a two pack! Sweet when you have two kids.
These come as a kit, and are cheap. And different colors, so my kids don’t fight. Click image for price.
The easiest thing to do to get started is literally just get a first aid kit bag (even if it is a ziploc bag!) and let them fill it with Band-Aids or other bandages. You cannot hurt yourself with a Band-Aid, and if it gives your kids a little agency or a way to participate in helping and healing, that’s a win. We go further though, and add a bunch of other stuff. We have built up to the list in this topic, so your mileage might vary. However, one crucial thing to remember: Kids HAVE to be a part of building the kit. Don’t just make one and give it to them. Lay out all the choices and items on the coffee table and talk through each one. It makes a big difference, and kids will feel a sense of ownership (which, after all, is what you are really trying to achieve here… you aren’t trying to build little EMT’s).
My kids are particular about Band-Aids, and after many trial and errors, their very favorites are CURAD performance series. They come in “cloth” and a bunch of fun colors, are easy for little fingers, and have an assortment of sizes. Seriously, these rock. Get a combo pack (like these, which have big ones, normal ones, finger ones and knuckle ones in an assortment of colors) if you can find them, because kids forget about how much things hurt when they are busy choosing the right band-aid or color. But honestly, any kind of Band-Aids will do.
It is important to pack for the types of issues you and your family actually have. for example, we are a bloody nose family. I get bloody noses, and both kids do as well. In the dry winter it is worse, but bloody noses can happen any time at our house, so we stock our kids with these “plugs” to help them, and they know how to use them. We trim them (with scissors) a little for smaller noses, but they work GREAT. Both kids know how to use these, and we trust them to deploy them correctly. This is something you can skip if you like, and aren’t people who are prone to bloody noses. You will notice my son’s bag has a couple of these, and my daughter’s only has one, thus telling you which is more prone.
Excellent for stopping Nose Bleeds riiiight…. NOW. Click the image for price. There are multiple packets in each box.
We are also a family who have that blood that bugs like to bite. And though we have tried every kind of cortisone lotion, and whatnot for bug bites, these “Sting-Kill” things (ampules?) are worth their weight in gold. They are just benzocaine, but they REALLY work, and have saved us from shrieking and itching many times. And they are crazy hard to find, so I have to order them online. You can see them up above in my daughter’s first aid kit.
I will note that the older version of this product looked different with a different package, and there are only 5 of them per pack, so get a bunch. Our kids have these in their packs, and I got a pack of them out to show you what they look like. I also made a GIF of me crushing the little glass ampule to show how you use them. There is a sealed thin glass ampule encased in a flexible stiff plastic tube, with an applicator tip at the end. You break the glass (easy) and the fluid wicks in to the applicator tip so you can rub it on. You can get them, and check the price HERE. Sometimes you can find them at the drug store also. I’ll add that I grew up in rural Maine, and when I take the kids back there to visit, they have SERIOUS mosquitoes, so we make sure we have piles of these when we go.
One of the things we worry about is infection in scrapes and cuts, so we have always encouraged using mild anti-biotic lotion/ointment in wounds. I know there is some debate about this, and how long you should do it, but for us, the Bacitracin ointment has always been a winner. We like the little “packets” because kids don’t squeeze out the whole tube…. Ask me how I know…. I will admit this is more than you will need in a LONG time, but these packets are the ones we use. I keep these in the first aid bin, and the kids can request “reloads”.
Small Bacitracin (like Neosporin, but better) packets. Shown next to a normal sized tube I got at the drug store. Click the image for price on these, but they should be under 15 bucks for a whole box of them.
We ski and hike and do other things that encourage and manufacture blisters. So we load up with anti-blister stuff. Band-Aids are terrible for this, and there’s no better way to ruin a hike than with blistered feet. And if there really was a disaster and we had 10 miles to go to some FEMA camp or something, you can be sure I’d rather have a ton of blister tape than have to carry my kids. After trying the classics (Moleskine etc), we have arrived on the fact that the blister tape from MyMedic are the absolute best. They call the “SuperSkin” and they come in all kinds of sizes. You can even get rolls of the stuff. It can be thought of as a sort of “super Band-Aid” with no pad, that stays put and stays smooth.
Blister Mod from My Medic. Regular Band-Aid at the top of picture for reference. Notice the Black, Green and Tan colors. Click the image for a link to buy them. They should be less than 2 dollars a set!
You can get superskin in multiple formats:
Blister “Mod” Kit (the kit shown above, has three Band-Aid size Superskins)
Superskin Assorted Bandage kit (has different sizes and more of them)
In Rolls (think of a roll that looks like tape with 40 of them rolled together. Great for a heavy duty first aid kit)
I’ll also note that that picture shows how MyMedic deals with the “Damn, I used the blister stuff from my kit, where do I get more?” issue. You can buy more “Mod” (stands for modular) packs as you use them, and it makes it easy to get small amounts of what you need. They also are really good about packaging together the things you are likely to need for a given injury. For example, there’s a kit called a Finger Cut Kit, that… well… has all the stuff you need for likely finger cuts. I don’t use any of these with my kids, but it makes it cheaper and easier to replenish their kits when I need to.
The next thing I let my kids pack are compressed towels. My favorite brand of these is actually Portawipes, but they aren’t packaged individually, so I also keep these BigOtter brand individually wrapped “coin” towels. My kids keep Portawipes in their bugout bags, but a couple of the BigOtter towels in their first aid kits.
These have come in ultra handy, wiping dirt away from cuts, cleaning off a skinned knee (before the alchohol pads come in to play), and are even good for gauze in a pinch (I treat them as NOT sterile, btw, but they are indivdually wrapped).
I also believe in keeping sunscreen in the first aid kit for kids. That will likely be the thing that is needed most in a disaster, with walking and being outside. We care a lot about sunscreen, and do not like the chemical kind, which destroy the reefs. So for us, it is zinc-oxide or bust. Only use the kind that says “mineral” on it. The stuff in the kids first aid kits is Pipette which is good, and formulated for babies. Our overall favorite sunscreen is Blue Lizard. That stuff is amazing, but it isn’t cheap, and it comes in bigger bottles and is kind of messy and thick.
We are big believers in Benadryl, so my son carries the Benadryl tablets. Lately, it has been hard for us to find the tablets, so I have to order those online. Benadryl is excellent for allergies, hives, and in some cases, can even serve as a sleep aid for kids. Not that I want to drug my kids, but in a pinch, it is good to know it works. There’s also a tube of cortisone cream in my son’s pack. That’s optional, of course.
You can also see a couple of hand sanitzers. Those Purell “personals” (basically little packs of purell that don’t leak all over) are excellent, and we also like the little “pump” ones called “Boogie Wipes Sanitzers”. They come in a three pack, and don’t seem to leak as much as the flip cap sanitizers.
The last thing in their packs is I let my son have a small set of tweezers. You can see them in that little plastic tube. They are Uncle Bill’s Sliver Gripper tweezers. They are a classic design, and are made for splinter removal. I don’t like them personally as much as some of the others available for my hands, but they fit my son’s hands pretty well.
Kids' First-Aid Kit Shopping List
| First Aid Item | Link to Check Price |
|---|---|
| First Aid Pouches | |
| CURAD Band-Aid Assorted Kit (different colors and sizes) | |
| Bacitracin Ointment packets (box of 144) | |
| Sting-Kill (for bug bites) | |
| Bloody Nose "Bleedstop" | |
| Uncle Bill's Sliver Gripper Tweezers | |
| Individually wrapped expanding towels | |
| SuperSkin Blister Bandages | |
| Childrens Benadryl tablets | |
| Pipette Sunscreen (Mineral, so it works using Zinc Oxide) | |
| Purell Personal packets |
I hope this gave you a little food for thought. You can, of course, build basically this same kit with a ziploc bag, and rummaging through your first aid drawer at home. The idea here isn’t to purchase the same thing we use. You should find something that works for you!
Even if all you do is get out a baggie and let your kids throw as many band-aids as they like in there, and stuff them in their backpacks, I think that is a win, and helps get you on the way to more prepared kids!
I’ll leave with one parting thought. We send both of our kids to school each day with small (mostly band aids) kits. Schools are sometimes a little weird about sending kids with anything that could be considered “medication”. So certainly no Benadryl, or Benzocaine, etc. But you might decide that for your family, everyone should travel with real first aid kits all the time! Give it some thought.