5 First Aid Essentials that You Must Have at Your Home

Always keep a first aid kit around you. While seeking professional help is the best thing you can do for someone in need of medical attention, an ambulance cannot be at your location instantly. You never know when an accident might happen, leaving you in a state of emergency. So it is always wise to keep a first aid kit close to you at all times.

While you can buy complete kits from most medical stores and malls, they have many items in them that some of us do not even know how to use. So a good trick is to get the essentials and count on the experts to take care of more severe issues. Here are five essentials that you must have at your home at all times:

1.Band-Aids
Band-aids are also called adhesive bandages, and they are the first thing you should have in your first aid kit. They are suitable to cover up minor bruises and cuts and prevent them from getting infected. But you need medical attention for deeper cuts and bruises.

2. Surgical Gloves
You can either get plastic gloves or latex gloves based on your preference. Plastic gloves are cheaper than latex gloves. When you are administering medical care for someone, these gloves prevent you from coming in contact with bodily fluids and diseases.

3. Burn Gel
Burns can occur from fires and chemicals in all sorts of situations. Your first aid kit must have a cream or ointment that you can apply to the wound instantly. These prevent the skin from drying out and reduce the pain and discomfort of the burn.

4. Medical Tape
If someone suffers from a deeper wound that needs better medical dressing, medical tape such as zinc tape or micropore tape is excellent at properly holding gauze and cotton to the injury. While some tapes have agents that help heal the wound, others do not.

5. Eyewash
When someone gets a dangerous substance or debris in their eyes, eyewash is a convenient tool to have on hand. Most commercial first aid kits are mandated to have some eyewash in them. First aid eye wash usually contains 99% sterile water with a tear-off top for one-time use.

If going through a medical store to hand-pick each item is not something you like, you can always buy a kit, but make sure that it has these items in it. Tell us in the comments if you think we missed something that you need to have in your first aid kit at home!