Sorry for the newbie questions, but I just signed up to this site and have a bunch of questions. It seems as though the more answers I find (which have been quite a few) the more questions those answers lead to.

That being said, is it better to create your own first aid kit, or are the ones you can buy at a store like WallMart ok? It seems as though it would be more expensive to buy all the components and make one myself. Does it matter? Are the ones in the store good enough?

The ones in stores(mine included) are o.k. for car kits or quick BOB, but not sufficient for home prepping. The kits lack depth of any component, for ex gauze pads, most kits have 2-3, but if you have a stab wound, gunshot wound, etc. you are going to need dozens. You can usually find reasonable deals on the internet for larger quantites of these supplies and IMHO you should get them.

you can build your kit yes but there are company's out there like myself that if you have a specific sport or hobbies we will build you one that will handle what you need.

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I think that it is nice to build your own first aid kit because you will know what you really need just in case there's an emergency. Plus , it is personalized.
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Agreed. I put my own together with a lot more stuff than you get in most prepackaged kits. I do have a store bought kit for my truck but I even added to that one.

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I have done both. Building your own kit lets you put exactly what you want in it, and because you've assembled it, you are likely going to be familiar with the location of each item, and know exactly what's in it. With pre-packaged kits, folks have a tendency to just throw them in a BOB or car kit or put them on a shelf and forget about them.

For my own kits, I typically purchase a pre-assembled kit, and then add to it or subtract from it as necessary. The nice thing about some pre-assembled kits is that they might include something you didn't think of. For BOB kits or small car kits, I like the kits by Adventure Medical. They are fairly inexpensive for what you get, and there's room enough to add a few things.

My home kit is much more substantial, and has been built up over several years using pre-assembled kits and specific individual items.

Also, people tend to overlook a trauma kit. I've assembled a basic trauma kit with 2 different sizes of Israeli-type bandages and 2 different sizes of QuikClot, all in a little pouch. I take it to the gun range with me, and have a duplicate kit in my home stash. I want to add stuff for treating a tension pneumothorax and a SOF Tourniquet. I'd also like to add an Epi-pen, but I'll have to convince my doc to write the scrip for that...

I think that it is important to know how to use everything in your first aid kit. Also, have more things that will treat things that you often have to deal with.

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