First Aid Kit Refills

[Robert Spencer]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good source to purchase small quantities of small packets (ointment, burn gel, stomach, pain killer, antihistamine, etc.) to refill my first aid kit. REI used to sell an assortment of refill items, but I couldn’t find them and even checked Adventure Medical Kits’ own website. Lots of possibilities on Amazon, but they often require a big quantity (50+) which I will never use by the expiration date.

[David Thomas]

I go to the first aid kit hanging on the wall at work and help myself to 1 or 2 little such packets when I need refills.

But you don’t have to buy from a commercial / industrial supplier.  As you observe, searching on Amazon for “triple antibiotic packets” finds numerous offerings of 144 such packets at 8 cents each to 25 packets at 22 cents each.  Seems an ideal thing for someone to order up before the next GGG and assemble variety packs of them.

One such item I’ve never seen in single-serving packets is an antifungal ointment.  OTOH, if you need it, you need it every day for a week or maybe the entire trip, so perhaps a small tube is best anyway.

Not for lotions, but for the pills like in some of those packets, you can order up an assortment of tiny Ziplock bags on Amazon (I got 500 for $9), label with a Sharpie and put 8-20 pills into each.  Of course, then Amazon shows you other drug-dealing paraphernalia for weeks afterwards . . .

I love medical professional samples because 1) they’re tiny, 2) they’re labelled with the contents which is better than generic blank containers, 3) you can refill them from larger containers, and 4) contain prescription drugs that otherwise aren’t available in such small containers.  Oh, and they’re free.

For refilling small tubes, mostly I squeeze them and let them re-expand with the opening submerged in a pool or capful of bulk lotion.  For my fleet of two dozen tiny professional sample tubes of high-end sunscreen, I use a turkey marinade injector from the grocery store ($10) to fill up all of them at once, squirt any leftover back into the bulk container, and then wash it out well. 

If you’re looking for a container to serve as a FAK on a UL trip, use a dyneema ditty bag or a Ziplock, but for a day hike, Scout trip, or in the car, go to Walmart’s Back-to-School aisle in late August and buy red zippered pencils cases for $1 each.  I buy a bunch in school colors for math competition supplies and write onto them in Sharpie.  If there’s something you haven’t committed to memory (signs and symptoms of heat stroke versus heat exhaustion; stages of hypothermia; etc) xerox/laser print it (not ink jet) and use the Rite-in-the-Rain goo or just Thompson’s WaterSeal for your wooden deck to water proof the paper (which, when you think about it, is wood).

[AK Granola]

Look up expiration dates online for each thing you are carrying. 99% of the time, they just gradually weaken over time but are still perfectly serviceable, if not quite as robust. It’s not like they suddenly turn into cyanide on the expiration date. There was a time when there was no such thing as an expiration date, but manufacturers were only too happy to comply with the current regs; sell more stuff! The one thing I do check regularly are bandaids, or anything with adhesive – the glue can dry out in our climate making them useless.

[Abraham Schlossberg]

Minimus may have some of the things you want.  they overcharge for shipping but maybe worth it, rather than having 300 packets of something you’ll never use.

[David Thomas]

I mentally extend expiration dates by a lot when items have been in my house between 69 and 71F the entirely time.  Something that’s been in a vehicle (especially in the sunbelt) can get to 140F.  Chemical reactions being what they are, things degrade 14 times faster at that elevated temperature.

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve been to stores that have a section of special travel sized products.  Maybe Walgreens?

[Robert Spencer]

David – great breakdown on some creative options. You are way more willing to build your own kit. I’m looking for the simple version I can buy and stick in a ziplock and go hiking. These are items I never use (so far), but of course want to have on hand for the unexpected. Yes, someone assembling into usable assortments and selling on GGG or litesmith.com would be super convenient. Based on the array of FAK posts over the years, there is no standard agreed upon list of items which makes the hunt all the more challenging.

AK – good point on expiration dates. I suppose it depends on the product and the length of expiration or heat exposure as David points out. After a few years I get nervous and figure it’s worth a few bucks to get things current.

Abraham – minimus looks good, but spendy when you have to buy multiple kits to compile the variety I’m looking for. I will certainly keep this site in mind. Good call.

Jerry – I will do some more looking locally. Thanks for your input.

[David Thomas]

Ah, by GGG I didn’t mean the commercial outlet (nor Dan Savage’s relationship advice) but the Gatherings of Gear Geeks camping / backpacking trips that have been organized by BPL members, often David Gardner before he moved, often in the SF Area which are attended by 15-25 BPL forum members.  Some of us have brought freebies or the reminder of bulk buys we’re not going to use on our own (in addition to caribou sausage, smoked salmon, and bear pastrami).

Oh, and a bit of actual FA advice:  My MD wife recommends the “triple antibiotic ointment” not so much for the antibiotic effect, but, when under a Bandaid, to keep the wound edges moist to facilitate the skin knitting itself back together – something it doesn’t do if the wound edges dry out.  I successful reattached my fingertip (not much more than skin deep) on a NZ backpacking trip after a moment of careless vegetable dicing.  I forgot to align the fingerprint pattern, so it’s rotated in that one little circle, but it healed up fine with no stitches used.

[Steve Thompson]

i bring the smallest tubes of anti fungal and cortisoide cream I can find (and if choose to wear contact lenses polysporin as well).  I carry neosporin “dosed” band aids (5 of them) and carry a half dozen loose pills (in a water proof container) of laxative, immodium, benedryl, sudafed, and tylenol.  plus enough daily doses of my script meds.

I tried the individual packets, but for a handful of grams the loose pills and tubes are much much cheaper.  Yes, I do toss stuff as items get >1 yr past their expiration date, but even with that waste I save money.

But, if I had @DavidThomas’ option of absconding with some employer provided individual pkgs. I’d take it.

[Todd T]

My MD wife recommends the “triple antibiotic ointment” not so much for the antibiotic effect, but, when under a Bandaid, to keep the wound edges moist to facilitate the skin knitting itself back together – something it doesn’t do if the wound edges dry out.

I’ve seen reference to one study (can’t remember where) that showed plain old Vaseline was just as good as antibiotic cream, not just for the knitting effect, but for avoiding infection as well.  Sadly, it’s very hard to find Vaseline in tiny tubes that make for easy squeezing onto a band-aid pad.  The few I’ve found, for reasons unknown, have perfume added.

[Jerry Adams]

vaseline is cheap and doesn’t expire.  You could easily re-package that.

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