How to Create Your Family’s Travel First Aid Kit
Get ready for your next adventure with confidence – Be Prepared like a Boy Scout for all the minor issues that might arise! Learn how to assemble a compact and practical travel first aid kit tailored to your family’s needs. From minor mishaps to everyday ailments, discover essential supplies to keep you prepared on the go and avoid those expensive runs to the pharmacy when you’re away. Find out what’s inside our family’s kit and gain valuable tips for optimizing space and efficiency. Don’t let unexpected setbacks ruin your trip—stay proactive and enjoy peace of mind wherever your travels take you. Before we dive in, our kit is specific to our family and the type of travel we love, it isn’t a survival kit or meant for serious injuries, but rather for the day-to-day things that happen at home and away. Please make sure to seek medical advice if you have specific health concerns.
Red and Ready to Go
Since we often only travel with carry-on luggage, we need our travel first aid kit to be as small, light, and compact as possible. Once we are away, we throw it in our backpack for the day and forget about it. To do this, we have removed extra packaging and labelled things in smaller bags and containers to take only the amount we need for a single trip. This approach requires that we restock it after each trip and check the expiry dates of anything that might be too old to use next time, but it’s worth it for the space savings.
We have a traditional red first aid kit so that when we need something quickly or someone else to grab it out of the backpack it’s easily recognizable (remember my husband has a lot of stuff in his magic backpack). Our bag has lots of pockets that fold out and a few zippered pouches for easy access. There are lots of options online to purchase travel kits if you are starting from scratch and then it can be customized with all your family’s favourite products. In addition to our first aid kit we also carry a small travel pill organizer for everything from pain relievers to cough drops.
It’s What’s Inside That Matters – Travel First Aid Kit
I’ve broken down the contents of our kit into a few helpful categories. A few things are too big for the first aid kit and instead go in our luggage, I’ve noted these below. Grab a free copy of the Travel First Aid List below.
Traditional First Aid Supplies
- Small scissors
- Tweezers
- Band-Aids in a few different sizes, including for blisters
- Steri-strips
- Gauze, medical tape
- Antiseptic wipes, Polysporin
- Q-tips
- Triangle bandage
- Tensor bandage
- Medical gloves
Aches and Pains
- Pain relievers
- Medistik (this doesn’t fit in our emergency kit, so it is packed in our luggage)
Stomach
- Imodium
- Gravol, chewable and regular
- Tums
Bugs, Sun, and Hydration
- Bug Cream
- Face and Regular Sunscreen (packed separately)
- After-bite
- Aloe (packed separately)
- Electrolyte packets
- Antihistamines
Fatigue and Colds
- Ener-C powdered packs
- Cold-Eeze lozenges
COVID Additions
- Hand sanitizer
- Masks (packed separately)
- Anti-bacterial wipes
A Few Extras
- Mini sewing kit with safety pins
- Single-use eye drops
- Medicated ear drops (packed separately)
By now I hope you are packed like a pro, ready for your next adventure. It’s bad enough when you aren’t feeling well on your holiday, by being prepared and making sure you have all the supplies you need for your family, you can get back to the fun faster and save on those expensive runs to the pharmacy. Please comment below on anything you have in your travel first aid kit that I didn’t mention so I can give it a try.
Click here to get a free travel first aid check list.