It’s summertime, and you know what that means: sunshine, barefeet, fresh air, swimming and freedom. If you’re a parent it means being prepared for all the cuts, sunburn, scrapes, bug bites, splinters and poison ivy. I took a poll on my instagram page (probably like a year ago, if I’m being honest) and everyone unanimously voted that they wanted to see what was inside my first aid kit.
Now, this doesn’t include everything we use at home too, but I will share some of that too, so don’t worry. This is moreso just so we’re prepared when we’re at Nature school, Adventure club or just hanging out at a park, party or cook out or camping.
So, first off, I waited until Target had their “buy 3 band-aid items, get a first aid kit free” and I bought stuff like gauze and tape. From there, I started adding things as I saw fit, such as:
- Witch hazel wipes – in place of alcohol wipes. It usually does the trick of cleaning, but with less burning (and therefore less tears)
- Bandages – our favorite brand is welly because even the non-waterproof ones stay on so well in the water. And I’m not sure about you, but I can’t keep my kids out of the water in summertime.
- Gauze and tape – For those awkward or really large cuts that need something more serious than a bandage.
- Tweezers – For splinters
- Toe nail clippers – Comes in really handy for hangnails, or when you stub your toe and part of your toenail comes off (real story, that’s how these ended up in here).
- Q tips – For applying salve and not having to put your dirty finger in the container.
- Lighter – originally this was put in here for ticks, but I later found you shouldn’t burn them because they will burrow deeper. But, you could always burn the ticks after they’re out haha. I kept the lighter in here, because it really has come in handy multiple times.
- Gloves – In the picture are individually wrapped gloves that come from my dad’s hair dying kit. He (and I) hate wasting things, so he asked if I had a need for them and this is that need. We’ve never had to use them, but they don’t take up much room, so why not.
- Salves – Earthley makes these salves in these little travel sticks and they are the all star’s of my first aid kit. The arnica salve I use for boo-boo’s that aren’t cut open, so for those moments your kid hurt themself and they’re all upset and they just want a salve and a band aid to “feel better”. The all purpose salve is literally for everything else. The drawing salve is for drawing stuff out, so think of it for poison ivy, splinters, post-tick bite, post bee stings, anything with a poisonous venom you would want to pull out from your skin.
- Colloidal silver – I’m all out, so I actually need to refill this, but they make a spray or a gel. I prefer the gel for when we’re out and about, but the spray would be good too. The only thing with the spray is you would have to soak a gauze pad, which would take more time, and with screaming kids, time is of the essence. We use silver for those situations that a salve wouldn’t be as powerful since silver is an antibacterial: rusty fishing hooks, cuts that happen in or around dirty creeks, post-splinter removal.
- The bug bite thing – Does exactly what it claims. Pulls the venom out from mosquito bites. It truly works! And it keeps your kids proactively busy instead of itching and complaining about said mosquito bites.
- Bug Spray – This is by far our favorite brand, they also have stickers for babies too! We keep the 2 oz. spray bottle in our first aid kit, and the 16 oz. in our car and on our back porch.
- Tick key – and the identification card that came with it. This gets ticks out, with their whole body intact, very effortlessly.
- Plastic bags – We keep these in here so we can put the tick in there, and save it in our freezer after writing the date on it and who it was found in, in case anything should happen to us and we need to have the tick sent out to test.
- Instant ice packs – if you’re out and about, you’re most likely not going to have access to ice.
- Honey/honey sticks – Great for post-bee bite stings, or if anyone is struggle with low blood sugar.
- Suckers/lollipops – Great for when you need your kids to calm down a bit so you can fix up their wound, pull out a splinter, etc.
I’ve put many different things here in the past, but it gets pretty bulky and large, and these make the cut time and time again.
Other things that we keep in our first aid kit at home (which is in a large plastic shoe box from the dollar tree) are:
- Active skin repair – It’s a non-stinging spray that uses the active, natural chemical found in white blood cells to support the body’s natural healing process.
- Motherlove green salve – A mix between the earthley all purpose salve and drawing salve.
- Earthley products – honestly, we love these products. Quality ingredients at a low price. I’ve never bought anything I haven’t liked. I use the sun soothe lotion almost daily in the summer, magnesium lotion for those restless legs or cramping, cbd for stress, anxiety, or headaches, I could go on an on with their product list, but you’ll just have to check it out for yourself!
- Sunscreen – now I’m big on letting yourself get some sun exposure, I think it’s so valuable to health. My kids are half Costa Rican, so thankfully they never need sunscreen! I however, am highly European skinned. Now there’s a lot of debate out there on sunscreen. So here’s how I do it: I let myself go without sunscreen until it’s a very sunny day that I will be outside the majority of. Then I use something that has PUFA free oils, and non-nano zinc oxide. I’ve found a brand called wax head, forever healthy hair, bigwoods organics, or sunfolk sunny. What I usually do is use the sunfolk sunny as my base, and then add one of the ones with zinc oxide on top because it seems to make me not as ghostly looking (because the zinc oxide will turn you super white).
There you have it! Our extensive list of first aid items, that keep me and my family healthy on the trail, at home, or anywhere! I hope you all enjoyed this post and feel free to share it with friends and family members! Also, feel free to leave a comment if you feel like I should know anything you and your family rely on for worry-free summer fun!
