DIY first aid kit.

if its not needed why do they put it in the kit?? the kit is insurance I would rather have things in it that I dont use than not have something one day you might need but to add to the list eye rinse always useful

The fabric plasters (the coarse fabric) are really good. Add the similar strapping reels, for holding the gauze on. The continuous (coarse) fabric dressing strip is particularly useful.

• Spray on antiseptic powder
• Painkillers?
• Eye bandage
• Wound dressing
• Sharp scissors (for cutting dressings, and cutting away clothes in dire emergency)

Burn cream?!?!? Every first aid course I've ever been on says the only treatment for burns is plenty of water and then professional help unless the burn's *very* small (oh, and *don't* burst any blisters).

Some non-alcoholic sterile wipes would be sensible.

Get individually wrapped plasters, not a roll of stuff you cut to size

- it may be convenient, but left lurking in your first aid kit unused for N years, you can't trust it to be sterile!

Gauze dressings on their own aren't much use. You're better off with prepared dressings (which have a pad and bandage in one sterile packet).

Tweezers ought to be sterile and single use, unless you fancy your chances with infecting the wound.

I would seriously suggest looking at a St John or Red Cross first aid kit, and preferably get some training with it.

First aid kit =

What I tend to find with premade kits is they seem to put in lots of bandages. To be honest I don't actually remember how to use a bandage and casualty is only 25 mins away so if a big wound needed dressing I could rip up something like a t-shirt to staunch the bleeding and go and get a professional to do it properly.

I think the items in a kit should be either items that help reduce harm in an incident that requires professional help - eyewash is the sort of thing I mean, and items that will be used in incidents only requiring home based treatment - plasters savlon etc.

Henry

The problem with non-alcoholic wipes, like those which are required in work place kits, is they don't dry quickly, well the ones I have had to use in the past, and leave a residue which stops the plaster sticking. This tends to lead to people ending up wiping the wound area with non sterile tissues just so that they can get the plaster on and get back to work.

Does anyone know why they don't use alcoholic wipes?

Henry

Inadine dressing is very useful for skin-loss wounds.

Because they tend to sting the wound!

For most cuts and [A] burns, as a First Responder when I was working, I was taught to wrap the wound in [1] cling-film first and then [2] apply a dry dressing over that.

No other creams or potions were allowed under the HSAW Act and only sterilised or tap water was to be used on burns of for washing around the area of a wound (not the wound itself, IIRC) - on small cuts and abrasions, non-alcoholic wipes could be used and a plaster applied.

Brian G

Try a more modern course. Although older creams did have about as much use as a good basting, the modern treatments like Water-Jel are well worth having. Small squeeze bottle for little stuff, big dressings for bigger problems.

The only things in my first-aid kits that ever get used are small dressings, microporous tape to hold them on, and cut-off rubber glove fingers to keep dirt out for the rest of the day. Tweezers and tea-tree oil for the innumerable splinters.

The rest of the box has the usual stuff, right up to the chainsaw amputation dressings. Fortunately I've never needed anything bigger than a triangular bandage.

Supply of clean water. Bottle of Scotch.

-- Adrian C

A bottle of whisky.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Now that is for use by the first aider ([for recovery purposes only] just in case he doesn't like the sight of blood) and not the casualty I presume? :-)

Brian G

Tourniquet. Cyanide antidote. Eye wash. Small bags for severed fingers.

I'll ask my daughter tomorrow, being a paramedic for London Ambulance she should know. She certainly knew what to do with my left second & third fingers last year when they argued with a table saw.

Dave

Best advice I seen so far.

Dave

First aid course have NOT given advice on using these for years because of the very great risk of causing more damge through incorrect use.

Very bad idea

Dave

"Henry" typed

They STING!!!!

More modern than last November or the current edition of the First Aid manual? It was a First Aid *at Work* course mind you, where they are obliged only to teach stuff that complies with the HASAW Act. Every time I go for a refresher there are a load more restrictions on what a First Aider at Work can do - soon we'll only be allowed to dial 999 ;-)

Cold running water is still much better at cooling burns than stuff like gel pads, although I'd consider using them if it was difficult to get running water to the burn. Unless the burn's really insignificant, tubes of ointment or sprays are pretty much a waste of space.

Packet of frozen peas in the freezer, useful for taking severed bits to hospital in, and reducing swelling in non-severed bits.

In message , Pete C writes

Spray dressing? Butterfly wotsits for pulling the wound closed.

What happened to the Elastoplast(?) shaped plasters for knuckles and finger tips? The only ones I found after a brief search were in packs of