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min? umm few wound closures few bandaides 2x pain meds 2x alky/iodine wipes moleskin benydryl the least i ever carried was in a 35mm film can. 6 band aides 8 butterflys small strip of moleskin 2xtylenol 2x akly prep pads but thats risky imho... unless its just for lil cuts ,bruises type crap. |
I agree with Protus on this one...minimal means what? If you're just concerned about scrapes, cuts, blisters and some sore muscles, a "minimal" kit will do just fine:   Personally, I like a minimal kit for everyday use, but I also like a decent tourniquet, at least one field dressing, 3-4 large gauze pads and a couple of gauze roles; add a role of medical tape and even a SAM splint and you can cover more severe injuries. Even for minor cuts, some iodine or other anti-septic will help keep you from getting an infection. Add some Imodium (anti-diarrhea) as that can be very problematic. Sutures are probably too much for most, but Butterfly closures or even some duct tape would help with larger gashes...keeping them clean is more important after you get the bleeding to stop. ROCK6 |
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What is the goal of the first aid kit, and what are the constraints it must work under? Does it need to slip in your wallet, your pants pocket, your jacket pocket, or your closet? Be water resistant, be sweatproof, be waterproof? Deal with white collar office issues or chainsaw wounds? Be useful in the dark? Ever since I sliced my finger, my minimum first aid kit contains no less than a sterile 2x2 gauze pad, and almost always a sterile 2x3 nonadherent gauze pad, kept in the top lid/easily available. If I really, really need that quickly, then I'll handle the loss of spilling a couple other things. Tape is optional, but if I need to control bleeding, I have a preference for a sterile pad that isn't going to stick afterwards/damage the wound much further when it's taken off. Everything else is gravy, but according to my notes the most commonly used items I use are headache medicide, and then the occasional Pepcid AC vies with the occassional band-aid+Betadine or band-aid+Neosporin combination. Hiking kits have different needs - tweezers to remove ticks quickly (to reduce the chance of contracting Lyme disease), for example, and moleskin for hot spots before they become blisters. Some other kits need SAM splints. My "big" kit contains a sampling of almost everything really useful in my first aid closet except the Wound Wash, wrist/ankle braces, and other large/bulky items, with some available and some in Zip-Locks, all nicely organized, with an alcohol wipe, gloves, larger gauze ad nonadherent gauze, a table of contents/map, and a chuck (incontinence pad - one absorbent side, one waterproof side, to give me a clean but nonsterile working area) on top. That's another point - does it need to be organized such that it's easy to find by you... or by another person? How fast do you need to get to what? Do you need a manual in there? What about a translation guide (Nytol = Benadryl)? To more directly answer, I'd say my absolute minimum would be a sterile 2x2" gauze pad, a sterille 1" fabric band-aid with a full-width or almost full-width pad (check! I've seen a 3/4" bandaid with a tiny pad... and a 1" with that same pad with more sticky area on either side), and a packet/swab/pad of disinfectant - neosporin or betadine or alcohol or similar (BZK?). Add a Benadryl/Nytol packet if you have, or regularly deal with, anyone that has serious allergies (i.e. which can kill). I am not a doctor. I am not a medic. I haven't even taken the Red Cross first aid class yet. In my personal opinion, and for my personal risk tolerance, which may be higher or lower than yours (and is certainly different): Headaches, stomachaches, etc. can be dealt with by toughing it out. Fevers are a defense mechanism until they're quite high indeed. Bleeding can kill, and infection can kill - though cleanliness is best to prevent infection. Poison ivy/oak/sumac is uncomfortable. Bug bites are, by and large, uncomfortable. Ticks aren't apparently too risky if you get them off in the first 24 hours (faster being better), so go home/to walgreens and buy tweezers already. Snake bites and black widow bites need a professional. Brown recluse bites are just going to suck. Cat bites need a professional and some antibiotics, though immediate disinfecting and cleaning as best you can is a good idea (no chance with the minimal kit listed above). Broken bones need something bigger, badly broken ones need a professional. Essentially, my personal minimum level is determined by my untrained lay opinion of the most dangerous, and most common, things I'll be able to deal with with that kit's contents - which boil down to not bleeding as much, and trying to prevent additional infection/further bleeding. Actually washing and cleaning the wound is assumed to take place with clean water not carried in the kit. |
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First Aid Kit - small for pack Advil Airborne Aleve Anebsol Bactine Band-aids plus fingers & knuckles Bayer Aspirin Benadryl Allergy Benadryl Insect Bite Pens Burn Cream Butterfly Strips Carmex. Cough Drops Dramamine. Gloves Glucose Tablets Gauze Bandages Hand Sanitizert Hand Warmers Iodine Pads Imodium AD Tablets Joint Wrap Tape Medical Tape Nyquil Tablets Penicillin Pepto Tablets Sudafed Super Glue Thermometer and covers Tiger Balm Trauma Bandage Tweezers Tylenol Tylenol Allergy Sinus Tylenol Cold and Sinus Vaseline Intensive Care Visine A/C |
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My hunting fanny pack: A couple Bandaids A couple Butterflys: not really needed for the minumum, but they are so small I take them anyway. 4- 2x2 gauze squares 1- Triangular Bandage.... as a sling for arm/shoulder, ankle brace, extra bandage material Aspirin tin with a couple aspirin and a couple Benadryl and a couple Ibprofen 1-Israeli dressing Small roll of electrical tape for multi purpose.... for 2x2 gauze or helping hold Bandaids on, keeping snow out of rifle muzzle, tagging deer. ETA: OK, I guess mine looks about like what Protus came up with. |
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I have several different types/sizes of med kits for different purposes. One of the best things I have done for carrying OTC meds is buy some of the different sized small tackle boxes from the fishing supply section of WalMart. The small partitioned sections are perfect for carrying several different types of OTC meds. In my work truck,I have a larger tackle kit, which came with three flat plastic tackle boxes, each about 2"high, by 12"X10". The plastic boxes slide inside the nylon-zippered carrybag w/sling that came with the complete kit. I only use two of the plastic boxes, but one has many different kinds of OTC meds in it, each inside a very small ziplock bag, with expiry date and dose info written in sharpie. The other box has stuff like bandaids, Neosporin, cough drops, antacid, bug spray. The boxes are semi-opaque, and I have used a lable maker to label the contents of each partition. I must add that I am only Army CLS trained, but I work in conjunction with our agency certified Paramedic. We both carry these same "sick-call" kits in our work trucks, and the bags and all contents were agency purchased. For personal use, and just the right size to fit in my shave kit for when I travel out of town, I have another real small clear plastic tackle box. It is similar in construction as the larger ones described above, but only has 6 or 8 partitions. In this one, I carry only the OTC meds that I have encountered a need while staying in a hotel at a conference or in-service (usually without a rental car available to me!)....stuff like immodium, allergy meds, sinus/hay-fever meds, etc. You might even be able to get away with one of those plastic box set-ups for reminding people to take their meds on certain days of the week...ie each individual lid has S/M/T/W/TH/F/S written on it. Each section should be large enough for 3-5 average sized pills...just figure out how to mark them appropriately for what you put in them! |