i think this is a great question. one of the things we learned after hurricane katrina is that a lot of people didn't have emergency kits available at home. some things i would definitely recommend include a bottle of hydrogen peroxide; to help clean out any type of wounds. maybe a triple antibiotic ointment to apply on the wounds after you have actually treated it band aids gauze pads rolled gauze so you can keep the gauze pad in place a flashlight extra batteries a weather radio. some type of fever reducer like tylenol or acetaminophen. maybe a motrin type of product as well. some imodium or pepto-bismol is another item that you may want to include in there along with some plastic latex gloves just in case something happens and you need to protect yourself. those are some of the common items that are found in the emergency kits that are available on the stores today. i would definitely recommend checking the expiration dates. once a year you should always go through that emergency kit as well as your medicine cabinet and check the expiration dates; if anything has expired you want to make sure that you dispose of it properly. in this case we want to make sure that people use the correct method. you want to get a ziploc bag and you want to take the medications and put it into the ziploc bag. you want to take a little bit of water and you want to help it dissolve or you can crush it with like a pot or a hammer. then you want to take something that will make it not very appealing like kitty litter or coffee grinds. put that into the ziploc bag seal it up and put it in the trash. that's the best way. we don't want people to flush medications anymore this is the preferred way now to dispose of medications. but that's a good rule of thumb each year to do.
i want to create an emergency kit for our family what should be in it and how often should i replace the items?