We like to think that first aid kits are universal and you can just put together a list of tools and medicines that’ll cover whatever crisis arises. That is one approach you can take. It may work just fine for you…and it may not. Practical herbalists know that from a very practical and experience-based perspective.
Have you ever tried to help a loved one through a traumatic situation with a box of bandaids? Or tried to ease the pain of an ankle sprain with a bottle of flower essence? In either case, we need the right tools or medicines for the job at hand, and it’s near impossible to build a kit that’ll cover every conceivable need. That’s why paramedics and emergency crews have whole trucks devoted to first aid.
Herbalists Have an Advantage
What we herbalists have going for us is that we get to narrow our expectations to just those potential problems we can reasonably predict might arise. If, for instance, you’re an avid hiker you might want to add medicines and tools that are helpful for sprains, strains, and light abrasions. A caregiver for someone with a memory disorder, like Alzheimer’s disease, might want to focus more on medicines and tools that help calm the nerves and ease fear and confusion instead. It’s all about knowing yourself and your people then making the best predictions you can.
The other benefit we herbalists have is we can get a lot of good medicine and even a few tools from the natural world. We, unlike our non-herbal friends, can pack loads and loads of first aid in our heads. By learning as much as we can about the plants that grow in our local environments, we arm ourselves with the knowledge we need to handle more first aid situations than our fellow humans who don’t have that knowledge.
A lovely example of how we can use our knowledge in a first aid situation is the time when my son got a bee sting on the playground. He knew plantain and knew it was good for cuts, scrapes, and even insect bites. At age 7 he was smart enough to go looking for plantain, which loves hanging out around playgrounds, and used a leaf to ease the sting and reduce the swelling. He even took the time to tell the kids he was playing with about plantain so they had the same knowledge should they ever need it.
With all that in mind, it’s time to build your own first aid kit. We’ll start off with a few questions to help you focus in on your needs. Once you’ve got a little clarity on the kind of first aid you expect you’ll encounter, we’ll take a look at how to address your needs. Then, we’ll offer some ideas for making your kit easy to use for you and for your loved ones…if you’re the one who needs first aid, you’ll want to feel confident your loved ones will know how to use all the medicines and tools in your kit.
Make a Clear Plan: How to Clarify Your Needs
The first step is identifying the potential first aid situations you may encounter so you can make the best decisions for the space you’ve got for your kit. Let’s start with a few questions.
1. Where are you most likely to encounter trouble?
This question is about how you live your life in general as well as helping you recognize specific types of situations that might require a customized kit. If, for instance, you generally spend most of your time at home or work, you may not need an extensive portable kit most of the time. The once-a-year camping week you spend in the middle of the desert with your closest friends and family, however, will require a set of medicines and tools that cover desert conditions and that’ll need to be narrowed enough to carry all of them with you.
2. What is your general constitution and that of the people for whom you might need to provide first aid?
This question helps you narrow the wide scope of potential medicines and tools you’re most likely to need. If, for instance, your constitution is generally tense, highly energized, and dry, the types of tools and medicines you may need more frequently are those that can help bring you back into balance – stuff that’s helpful for easing tension, calming energy and nerves, and moistening. On the other hand, if moist, slow, and calm elements make up the bulk of your constitution or that of the people you might need to help, medicines and tools that are drying, energizing, and uplifting may well be more important.
3. What types of activities are the ones where you are most likely to encounter first aid needs?
This question helps you narrow your kit to that which is most likely to come up for you. If, for instance, you’ve got small children and you do a lot of camping, scrapes and bruises are probably high on the list of potential injuries. If you’re older and love cycling, muscles strains and aches plus potential scrapes are probably higher on your list.
4. Who might need aid?
This question isn’t about naming all your friends and family who might run into trouble. It’s about recognizing whether you’re likely to need to help humans, cats, dogs, birds, reptiles…you get the picture. Most of us tend to be heavily focused on humans when we build our first aid kits. For the most part, humans are more likely than any others to need the medicines and tools in our kits. But, if you included non-human animals in your life you’ll occasionally run into situations where they’ll need a bit of tending as well. It’s wise to have a few medicines and tools included that can help if you need to tend to a non-human friend, too.
Begin Building: Gather Your Medicines First
Now that you’ve clarified your needs, it’s time to begin building your kit. In general, it’s wise to include one or more medicines or tools for each of the following categories:
- Anti-infection – this includes anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral types of medicines as well as sanitizers that best fit your needs.
- Bleeding and Containing fluids – this includes medicines and tools to handle the types of bloody and mucus-laden situations that fit your needs.
- Calming and Supporting – this includes tools and medicines to help calm and stabilize the nervous system.
- Digestives – this includes mainly medicines that help handle the types of digestive upsets you most commonly encounter.
- Pain Relief – This includes anti-inflammatories, analgesics, and medicine and tools to help reduce pain in the types of situations you most expect to encounter.
Finish Building: Storage and Notes for Use
Once you’ve gathered all your medicines and tools, it’s time to finish building your kit. Find a container that makes sense for you. Take a look at your answers to question 1.
Are you generally active and away from home when you may need to use your first aid kit? If so, you may want to choose a storage container that’s easily portable so you can carry it with you.
Do you spend most of your time at Home? At work? You can designate an area of your home as your first aid kit area, thereby making a first aid kit that’s not portable but may well be able to house more items than more portable kits. If you spend part of your time at work, you might consider creating a small essentials case you can carry with you to work so you can take the first aid items that are most likely to be needed at work with you.
Whatever your answers were for question 1, now is the time to choose a container or storage system that works best for you.
Notes?
You may know how to use each of the herbal medicines other medicines, and tools you’ve chosen for your kit…but others may not. Take the time to jot notes on the labels for each of the herbs or formulas you’ve included. Something as simple as “Lavender Essential Oil: Relax muscles, anti-septic, Limited animal use, external only,” will help considerably. Be sure to include any serious cautions and the most generalized situations on each label.
Take it a step further: Create a Note Card
It’s especially helpful to include a notecard in your kit that gives more information than each label offers. Consider organizing it by use rather than plant name. That will make it easier to quickly find the right herb for the job at hand, especially if it’s not you who’s doing the first aiding. Depending on the size of your kit, you could use one side to list uses and the associated herbs and the oter side to either list the plants with their uses or to list plants to look for in the environment that may help as well. For instance, you could include a list of notes like”Look for Plantain for beestings and other minor scrapes and abrasions, not in kit.” This can help you find further assistance, especially in the areas your kit doesn’t cover as well due to the nature of your expectations…or because you used up something and forgot to refill it last time.
For specific suggestions on what you might include in your kit, see Sue’s article on her 35 Must-Haves for Your Herbal First Aid Kit.
