Essential items for your first aid kit
A first aid kit is essential for camping and outdoor activities. It pays to be prepared before you embark on your adventure and pack a first aid kit that includes medicines and items that can help you out in most situations. Building your own personalised first aid kit will suit your needs better than buying a premade one.
Be sure to pack a torch and spare batteries, a small torch will be easy to carry and pack. You should include in the kit enough whistles for each person camping with you or joining you on your outdoor activities. Small tweezers are useful for removing small splinters or tiny animals that can in bed themselves such as ticks.
Bandages come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are an essential item for any first aid kit. Gauze rolls can be wrapped around any wound and can be used to hold a gauze pad in place. Sterile gauze pads can be used for various wound sizes and work well with gauze rolls. Steri-strips are pre-cut and reinforced for extra strength. They minimize the risk of superficial wounds opening during healing or used to close superficial wounds until you can seek medical help.
Band-aides are required for general cuts and scrapes, and for blisters from a day of walking or hiking. They really are an essential item and you will be surprised how many times you will be reaching for one. Hydrocortisone cream is extremely beneficial for itches, especially insect bites such as bed bugs. Hydrocortisone will reduce inflammation and can be also used to treat eczema.
A thermometer is useful to have in your kit so you can diagnose if anyone in your party is ill with a temperature, especially if it is suspected to be a serious illness. If you plan on cooking meals or having a camp fire, make sure your kit contains burn ointment. Anaesthetic spray and antiseptic towels or creams are essential. Do also pack a small first aid kit to provide you with instructions on what to do in emergencies.
No matter the destination, pack plenty of pain relief tablets, diarrhoea medication and cold and flu tablets; it’s better to be safe than sorry and your camping trip can be ruined when you get a pesky cold. Tissues and a toilet roll will also be gratefully received.
Hopefully you will never have to use most of these items, but you definitely need to take them with you as you never know when an emergency may strike.
Nigel Williams is a climbing and mountaineering expert who is currently researching first aid kits
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