I should have put the smily face on my sarcastic remark about first aid, because none of us like folks hurt. Having said that, it seems like there's always some minimal kind of first aid needed on many trips unless we're not doing anything outdoors. Kids with us make mistakes, (unless they aren't trying) and hopefully learn from them with the small mistakes now. If they cut themselves with a pen knife as a kid, maybe some set of neurons in their noggin register something that keeps them from lopping off a finger/toe/foot when they are older with the axe? At least I hope that's how it works

About the instant ice packs, I have had the same thing happen, with ice packs that were in my vehicle FAK in particular. I don't know whether they heated up enough at some point to break down the inner divider between the chemicals, or froze in the winter and ruined them. I always have a few around, and never had them all fail, but, it's frustrating. I don't know what the storage conditions and shelf life are supposed to be for those things. Between sports and scouts, we go through enough to keep the stock in my kits rotated pretty regularly, unfortunately!