Travel Tips from Mother Hadjes: First Aid Kits

I thought people might be interested to see what I packed for our first aid kit while we are away from home.  Everything listed will fit in about 2 gallon size Ziploc bags.  Admittedly I packed a lot more stuff for this trip than I normally would because of the length of this trip and the language barrier being larger for us here than if we had gone to an English or Spanish speaking destination.  If you are preparing for a trip and trying to decide what to pack in your first aid kit hopefully this will give you a few ideas.  Make sure to consult your health care providers about anything your family may need and feel free to share your ideas below in the comment section.  I’d love to know what items you consider important to you when you travel!

Sidenote:  I think its important to remember that people do live wherever you are traveling, and they raise their children there too.  Most likely you will be just fine in most destinations without packing anything.  There are some things that you could need for time sensitive reasons and therefore walking to a store and overcoming a language barrier is not practical, that’s going to be a good thing to bring with you.  With most items I tend to think preventative first- how can I avoid an infection or illness? rather than having to think about how to treat it later.  Good hygiene practices for your daily activities and for wound care will go a long way for a more enjoyable travel experience.

Listed in no particular order…..

 

 

First up we have the first aid related items I keep in my purse with me when I’m out and about. The peppermint gum is perfect for anyone feeling some motion sickness or other nausea.  The little bottle is just an herbal immune boosting liquid that I get from my naturopath. The little container holds a couple bandaids, some moleskin patches (for rub spots on your feet when you feel a blister forming), some small individual hand sanitizer wipes, antiseptic wipes, Neosporin type cream. Other than these items I have a cloth handkerchief.  I always prefer soap and water for hand washing and wound washing when possible but when I’m out and about that isn’t always available.

 

Back at the house I have a small basket container holding our family first aid supplies.  The kids have part of their morning and evening routine to go to the basket for their vitamins and any needs they have throughout the day.  I will pull from this basket when/if I need to refill anything in my purse kit.

 

Here are our daily vitamins and supplements for the whole family.  For a shorter trip we probably wouldn’t have bothered to bring anything or at least not as much, for this trip we had the space available in our luggage and decided to go ahead and bring it all.

Here are a few additional items I brought along just in case.  The immune formula, bronchial formula and essential oil blend are all from our care provider at home. The fourth item is a spray that is good for insect repellent and as an itch stopper that I have forgotten to use up till right now when I got it out to photograph for this post.  Having something that you can take at the very onset of any illness symptoms that is effective for you is really nice to have on hand.  I’d much rather kill an illness before it gets good and started in your system than be down for a few days as it runs its course.

 

Speaking of itching, I also went out and bought these benedryl products and brought along some Tylenol.  Generally speaking its wise to pack your medicinal products in their original packaging.  Airports don’t love it when you have a bunch of random pills in Ziploc bags, so I recommend actually going out and buying small bottles of stuff if you don’t already have it.  Then save the bottles and refill when needed through the years.  I decided the benedryl products were important because two of my children have had some allergic reactions in the past that the culprits haven’t always been identified.  I don’t want someone breaking out in hives or having breathing issues while I walk 10-15 mins to a store, try to figure out which package is the right one and hope for the best as I walk back home again.  The Tylenol is for me and some of the residual injury symptoms I still struggle from a past car accident.  I’m sure there are better ways to deal with this pain and often I can avoid the pain entirely BUT when I need something and I don’t want to think about or discuss other possibilities I tend to grab Tylenol, for better or for worse.  So far this trip I have not had to use this bottle at all but I feel better knowing I have it.

 

 

Here’s another ‘just in case I have pain’ product that I haven’t had to use so far this trip.  I had some pretty severe knee pain and potential knee surgery I was working through last year and much of the beginning of this year.  I’m happy to report that a wise orthopedic surgeon gave me some home exercises to do that have helped tremendously and helped me avoid surgery.  I haven’t had issues with the knee so far this trip but I still feel better knowing I have these pain patches if I need them.

Emergen-C- I put these in the kids’ water bottles every single time we fly on a plane.  I keep a pack or two in my purse and I keep some in the first aid kit at home.  It is pointless to chug EmergenC all the time because of how vitamin C behaves in your body but having the ability to give your body a boost when you know you are headed into an immune compromising situation (travel, hospitals, large crowds, high stress/little sleep situations…) is really nice.  I’ll also put one in a water bottle when I need some electrolytes (long hike and I want something a little more than just more water).  The flucare product shown I would not have gone out and bought just for this trip but I already had it and threw it in at the last minute, same thing with the cough drops and the center pulse point cream.  For a sore throat starting or a cough you can always use honey and lemon purchased at your destination and I’d be taking that immune formula and have EmergenC in the water bottles BUT I had that stuff on hand and they are small so I added them in.

The lanolin is something I do love and do tend to always have on hand.  Anyone who has ever breastfed probably already has a bottle of this somewhere and doesn’t know what to do with it now.  Well ladies and gentlemen its good for all cracked, chafed or damaged skin.  I use it on sore noses, wind chapped cheeks, chapped lips….anywhere you need something to protect and soothe the skin that has a little more staying power and less ingredients than your typical lotion.  Put it on the chapped skin around a nose that has been wiped one too many times before bed and you’ll wake up the next morning to new lovely skin that feels great.

 

 

And now for a few of my favorite and most used items.  Here we have arnica in both its pellet form and its gel form.  Truth be told I like the cream form more but I can’t always find it and this is what I have right now.  I use this primarily for bruises or sore muscles in general.  When I’ve had a really long day of hiking then taking some arnica when I get home (or better yet along the way and again when I get home) really helps me recover faster.

By far this is what we have used the most so far this trip.  This is a super multipurpose product and you’ll have to look into it yourself to find out its many uses.  We’ve been using it on our itchy mosquito bites to reduce the itching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly I leave you with this first aid item that we bought after we arrived.  In Japan if you have a cough or any other illness symptoms and are out and about then the polite thing to do is to wear a face mask.  These are available at all the local stores and come in everything from a plain white to decorative prints of pandas.  I really appreciate that this is such a common thing that it doesn’t feel weird to wear one if you need it, in fact you’ll quickly feel bad if you are sneezing and don’t have a mask.  When packed on a tight train during rush hour I really appreciate the masks I see around me keeping the common cold from being something we all have to deal with next week, ain’t nobody got time for that.

 

 

Not photographed but also in my first aid arsenal- get good sleep and refillable water bottles.  Airport security won’t let you bring bottles of liquid through the checkpoint but they will let you bring through an empty reusable water bottle.  Bring it through and fill it up on the other side, bonus is that many airports even have water bottle refilling stations so you don’t even have to mess around with holding your bottle at just the right angle at a drinking fountain!  Drink water throughout a flight, especially an international flight.  I know that getting up to use the bathroom frequently is super annoying BUT it means you’re keeping the blood in your legs moving and that’s good for your whole body (blood clots? swollen feet?). Feed your body good foods, keep it hydrated and give it the opportunity to recover with good sleep and it will treat you well. Preventative medicine is always the best medicine.

I hope this post was interesting to someone.  If you have any items that you like to bring with you when you travel then feel free to post a comment below.  Also if you have any questions for me regarding traveling, traveling with kids, traveling as homeschoolers or anything else you think I can address please feel free to post your question in the comment section below.

 

Mother Hadjes