I agree with haertig on administering meds to Scouts in general. Just to clarify, the epipens aren't for stocking the FAK, those are held by those who have allergies that require them. My advice was to know who they are, and where they keep their epipens, because you may have to administer the epipen for them if they cannot. By "you" I mean the adult leader of the troop, not a 13 year old Scout. Otherwise, I suggest that climberslacker's job here is to stock the Troop FAK, and if someone goes into anaphalactic shock, to stay calm, and assist the adult leaders however he can. That may include pointing him to Little Jimmy's epipen. Parents of Scouts do sign appropriate waivers allowing for emergency treatment - by adult leaders in any case.

yes, I realize that asprin is not good for young people, that is why it is ibuprofin. I didn't know that cough drops could harm you! thanks for the heads up!

Yes, But I would like to point out if little jimmy is in anaphalactic shock, and i give the adult leader the epi-pen and he asks"so uhh, how do I do this" I would probably take it over, as I have read some on how to do it. But that would be only if I could not find another leader and all of the ones I could find were clueless...

It is the iodine in the cough drops. Iodine allergy is not uncommon as allergies go - comparing iodine allergy to "other allergies". Not all cough drops contain iodine however.

I have “kits” both ways.

Whenever I provide medical care for Girl Scouts, I have a master kit with a fair amount of supplies and then have several smaller specialized kits I use if the situation warrants.

If I am providing care as part of a larger neighborhood function/encampment and I am stationed at the First Aid Station, my experience has been the two most common forms of treatment are for cuts/scraps and the second is for headaches. What will do is have a cut and scraps kit consisting of antiseptic cleaning pads, saline, 2X2/4X4s and band-aids, this generally takes care of 90% of the cases, add a pair of splinter forceps and disposable 18-19ga. hypodermic needles (great for removing splinters) and that generally will take care of another 8-9%. Some burn gel; will take care of the remaining 1-2% of incidents. If the case is more serious, I have my main kit with a fair amount of trauma supplies.

I even make up little zip-lock bags with some antiseptic pads, a couple 2X2s and band-aids, which I will give to the “patient” or leader to take care of the problem at their campsite.

Pete

Can you recommend any that don't have iodine? Also, is that one reason you don't see many people carrying iodine towelettes around?

And that's your decision. One I personally lean towards agreeing with. You sound mature and knowledgeable/willing_to_learn, but I assume you're still a minor so I hesitate a bit on that "agree with" statement. Technically, injecting epi is a more invasive thing to do without training than inserting an oral airway.

I had one more idea, after reading Pete's post and the post about the epi-pen.

When I was in my late teens, I worked as a lifeguard and was the lifeguard who got to treat the most injuries. The most common minor injury I dealt with were bee stings. The best remedy I had for them was a paste made from baking soda and ammonia. It usually got the kids to stop crying rather quickly. Cheap too.

This of course was not for anyone showing signs of anaphalactic shock, but handling that would have been totally out of my league.

I rarely ever use cough drops, and I'm not allergic to iodine, so I don't know any specific non-iodine brands. Just go to the store and look at the ingredients on the label. Iodine will be listed if it's present.

Oh, I don't know. You don't see many people carrying pitchforks around either, but that's not because they're allergic to them. I suppose the real reason is that most people don't have much use for iodine towelettes in the first place.

Yes, i am a jr. guard, and Guards aren't aloud to even do anything like take out a splinter, as that is too invasive, however there are some guards who are EMTs and they are a aloud to do those kinds of things.

Thanks for the tip Dan_Mcl!!

Last summer both my son and daughter were lifeguards. On pool opening day they were both on duty at the same pool. Hordes of little kids came running in and managed to find the broken glass that some morons had managed to hide in the grass. So when the bloody foot patrol came running up, my kids went and got the pools official first aid kit. It contained two bandaids and a roll of gauze. Wonderful. My kids temporarily closed the pool while one of them ran next door to the store and bought supplies. After that us parents went and bought each kid a nicely stocked kit and they took these with them for all subsequent lifeguard shifts. We reported the ridiculousness of the existing first aid kits to the pool management, who did some restocking after that.