Natural families like natural remedies and non-toxic ingredients. Typically their medicine chests look a lot different than one you find in a more mainstream home. I have yet to see a Natural First Aid Kit at my local grocer though so if you want to make your own…here are a few ideas. You will be prepared and you will be using only natural and safe products on your family.
What you need to make a natural first aid kit:
Aloe Vera Gel – It soothes and heals burned, bitten, or otherwise injured skin. Since carrying aloe vera plant clipping around might not be practical, this is the next best thing.
Neem Oil – Neem oil is touted for reducing pain, killing the bacteria that can cause infection, and aiding in healing with reduced scarring. Neem is also a great insect repellent.
Vinegar – A small squirt bottle of vinegar is helpful in cleaning wounds to prevent infection.
Honey – Applying pure honey directly to an open wound can be very beneficial. It acts as a natural antibiotic and it can keep the wound sterile by killing off bacteria. A small lip-gloss style conatiner of raw honey should do the trick.
Homemade Black Salve – This amazing salve absorbs toxins…great for bites and stings. Here are instructions for making basic black salve. Water and baking soda work well too.
Vitamin E Capsules – Great for rubbing on burns, scrapes, and cuts.
Epsom salts and a bottle of water – Great for soaking wounds. An Epsom salt paste can be made to treat poison ivy/oak.
Ginger Chews or crystallized ginger – These help with nausea and motion sickness…morning sicknes too.
Bandages, Gauze, Scissors, Tape, Thermometer – To keep wounds clean and away from curious fingers.
Tweezers – for splinters and such.
These are just basics you may want to include. You can also include homeopathic remedies if so inclined. Some good ones to include would be aconite, apis mel, arnica, belladonna, chammomilla, nux vom, and sepia. Boiron makes homeopathic medicine tubes that are perfect for this!
Thanks for this. Very resourceful. I didn’t know about the honey trick.
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I really like this list since I have most everything in my house anyway!!
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Don’t forget the charcoal! Mixing charcoal powder and mixing it with water to make a pultice will bring the venom of any biting critter out, causing a bite to be less severe.
Wow, Great post!!
Thanks!
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Hi Tiffany,
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check it out, you have a prime spot in it. Do shower it with link-juice please… ;-)
Don’t forget the cayenne pepper, it stops bleeding very fast, and doesn’t burn or sting like you’d think….(well, a tiny bit), but it cauterizes even deep kitchen cuts so well that they don’t open up again even if you bump them 10 minutes later! Just dump a little pile of it on the wound, and wrap it up.
Cayenne is fantastic for childbirth hemorrhaging – literally throw handfuls at the area and it will constrict the blood vessles quickly. Also, if you are without anything to stop bleeding, cleanish (well as new and clean as possible) spiderwebs will stop bleeding incredibly quickly. I have used both of these methods when I lived in the bush for quite some time.
Even though its beneficial, don’t you think putting belladonna in there defeats the purpose of having a non-toxic first aid kit?
Ben, I don’t think so. If used appropriately it is not toxic. The intent behind this kit is not to make it safe for kiddies so much but rather “natural” not pharma/chemical laden. Even natural things can be dangerous if given to kids unsupervised.
Great post. I’ve never used Neem Oil before. I’ll definitely look into getting some!
This is a wonderful post and very practical advice given.
I would add a small bag of turmeric which has known anti-bacterial properties and anti-viral as well. Way to go!
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don’t forget the tea tree oil. My is used for cleaning and disenfecting the house but I guess you can use it as an antiseptic and for athletes foot.
This is the kind of common sense information I luv. Thanks for the tips.
Arnica salve is a staple in mine also : )
tea tree oil – antifungal, antimicrobial, natural pesticide and helps wounds heal quickly
pure essential oil lavender for burnsbentonite clay for detoxing poisons see my blog for more infoarnica homeopathic 6c low potency internally for bruising,beating,accidents,bleedingfresh ginger root or ginger candy-for car /boat sicknesscharcoal pills (made from Coconut burnt wood) for bad water/food that turns into the runsechinacea/goldenseal capsules=flu/fever/colds/infections-take intern.
For the homemade black salve, could you substitute mango butter if you don’t have shea butter? Or could you double the cocoa butter? Also could you use honey if you don’t have honey powder? New to the site but enjoying it so far =0)
does all of this have a long shelf life?
Some does. You would likely have to replenish some things every year.
I suggest spell checker: Salve instead of Slave.