What approach do you take to updating your first aid kit? I checked my kits, and all the small packets of over-the-counter meds have expired. There are also some items that have no expiration date, which makes me suspicious. The antibiotic cream doesn't have an expiration date? That doesn't seem right?

Also, I keep a kit in my car, and it gets really hot in there in the summer. I'd think meds have a shorter life.

Buying individually packaged pills is pricey for what you get. I wonder whether it might not be better just to buy a new kit. So do you "refill" your kit, or do you just, at some point, settle for a new one?

I just decided to do a large order every few years to update the kits. There are plenty of online stores that stuck a good item for a good price. Although the painkillers are from the supermarket.

No-expiration dates don't mean it stays well. Have things that were elastic, but weren't anymore. Sterile packaging that just fell apart. Glue that no longer stuck. etc.

Also, some things have expiration dates, but the date is relevant for unopened packages. That and to prevent cross-contamination, kind of made me use single-use packages.

Medication refill kits? eg

https://www.e-firstaidsupplies.com/911-10981-p-first-aid-kits-specialty.html

For some reason medication refill kits are not sold in the UK (perhaps EU).

I refill my first aid kits through Chinook Medical. No affiliation.

https://www.chinookmed.com/category/supplies/supplies/1.html

With Chinook's prices, I can completely restock my TRI first aid kits (the $25 kits from Sam's Club) for less than what it cost to buy a new one.

Jeanette Isabelle

Standard disclaimer.... www.minimus.biz Good for individual items. Meds of all kinds. Plus more.

I use full size bottles for Ibuprofen.

Chinook is awesome! Been buying there for ten years or so, great company.

No doubt some hand wringing snowflakery and rear-end covering due to liability issues.

I also recollect that as a first aider in the UK, you can only assist people to take their own medicine. Giving medicine, no matter what it is, is in the realms of health care professionals and pharmacists.

When providing first-aid or just offering someone the contents of my ever-present bottle of ibuprofen, there are two good reasons to have someone take their own medications. One is that if they’re not oriented enough to take two tablets from me and put them in their mouth, they may not be oriented enough to swallow them without choking. Second, if they choose to take something, it is much harder to blame me for anything related to their choice.

I have provided meds when specifically asked for them. I don't suggest the victim take them. Basically don't go beyond the first aid guidelines. I you do, technically you are practicing medicine without a license....

It's odd, some sort of bureaucracy getting in the way for sure.
Can buy box of aspirin no problem, trying to find individually wrapped aspirin or any unitized medication, no chance.

Where are you based? In Europe, you generally get the medication in blister packs, which you can cut/tear into individual packages.

UK. Yeah, but have to ensure labelled with expiry etc. More convenient if in a satchet. It's odd that water tablets usually come packaged this way, but otc medication isn't.

Normally every two years I look at the kits and every four or five I rip them back apart and rebuild and update them

Time to repack the car kit; and move over to water proof packing for the smaller ones.

If you check with your Pharmacist, you can find out how early you can reoder a medication. In my case, I can reorder two weeks before the script runs out. By doing this consistently, I can build up more than a months supply. IMHO, we're facing a recessio or worse.

I already have a year's supply of some medications and getting close to that with other prescriptions.

Jeanette Isabelle

I just scrounge small plastic bottles (usually from a super small sized bottle of aspirin, Tylenol, etc.) And I refill those from my larger at-home stock. They're fine for a year (probably much longer).

After I've decided they're starting to get old, I take out the meds and put them back at home labeled "take these first". Then I refill the little bottles from my at-home stock and put them back in my mobile kit.

Half the time I forget to do the yearly refilling. But you know what? Five year old Tylenol works just fine for me. Same for Advil. I rarely take aspirin, and at five years old it's definitely smelling vinegary, but it will still work and isn't going to hurt you. Just consider your five year old 325mg aspirin tablet to be effectively a 315mg tablet. Good enough.

This is not good practice for prescription meds that are sensitive to dosage, or that degenerate quickly. But for over the counter meds? Home rotation like I do above is just fine IMHO.

If you're worried about it, you can probably buy a whole bottle of 100 aspirin to drop into your kit, and that would cost about the same as a miniature foil-pack of four aspirin. Those little packets are not exactly cost efficient...

with some practice you can vacuum seal a strip of meds, and then cross seal them as individual tabs with a vacuum sealer