No youth sports team or competition should be without a first aid kit designed to treat the most common injuries and illnesses that might be encountered.

General Advice

• Match the contents to the sport: The type of first aid that may be required varies by sport. Because bruises, abrasions, and sprained ankles are more common in baseball, a baseball team's first aid kit, for instance, needs to be stocked with cold packs, elastic bandages, and Band-Aids, while a track team's kit needs to have plenty of supplies to treat blisters, abrasions, pulled muscles, and sprains. If your team is going to be in the sun, carry sunscreen; the cross-country coach needs to carry an allergy kit to manage bee stings.

• Stock a realistic quantity: Be prepared to treat more than one child at an event. For younger children, remember to stock pediatric doses (in liquid form, if necessary).

• Ensure ready access: Sports first aid supplies should be placed where they are readily accessible, and marked clearly to allow rapid identification. Use Ziploc-type bags within the athletic first aid kit for extra materials and to sort your supplies. For instance, it is helpful to partition sports first aid supplies into modules "for wound care," "for an allergic reaction," and so forth.

• Protect against damage: Carry sports first aid supplies in a watertight container designed to withstand years of rough handling and extremes in temperature, such as a plastic (Pelican case or Otter Box) or metal container equipped with a rubber O-ring gasket for a tight, waterproof seal.

Suggestions For Contents Of A Althletic First Aid Kit And Sports First Aid Supplies

Listed below are what a sports first aid should contain. Go through this list carefully, and make a decision to include or exclude these items from your medical kit. Have a medical professional teach you how to take care of your players, so that when the time comes, you will know how to apply a Steri-Strip to close a wound, mold a Sam Splint to support a sprained wrist, or use a pocket mask to perform rescue breathing.

General Supplies For First Aid Kits For Sports

• First Aid Manual or Emergency/CPR flashcards

• Safety pins

• Paramedic or EMT shears (scissors)

• Sharp-pointed surgical scissors

• Bandage scissors

• Splinter forceps (tweezers)

• Standard oral thermometer: digital, mercury, or alcohol

• Wooden tongue depressors ("tongue blades")

• Waterproof flashlight (such as Pelican MityLite*) or headlamp (and spare batteries)

• CPR mouth barrier or pocket mask (such as a Microshield X-L Mouth Barrier*)

• Sterile (hypoallergenic or latex) surgical gloves (at least 2 pair); if you are allergic to latex, bring nonlatex, synthetic, nonpermeable gloves;

• Instant chemical cold pack(s**

• Ziploc* bags (to hold ice for ice packs)

• Rescue blanket

• Cell phone

• Medical release forms

• List of emergency phone numbers (paramedics, hospital emergency room)

*Brand names are shown to indicate representative products, not to indicate that these are the only products that may be used. Quality, availability, cost, and preference will influence which specific products you choose.

**While instant cold or gel packs are easy to store and are more convenient than ice, experts say that they may damage the skin because of the cold temperatures they reach. Because ice doesn't get as cold, it is safer, and thus preferable to cold or gel packs. So, while you should have a cold pack in the first-aid kit as a backup, ice should be brought to all practices and games.

Sports First Aid Kits Wound Care-Preparations and Dressings

• Elastic bandages (Band-Aid* or Coverlet*) in assorted sizes (strip, knuckle, and broad); cloth with adhesive is preferable

• Adhesive strips for wound closure (Steri-Strip* or Cover-Strip II*), assorted sizes (such as ¼" x 4", 1/8" x 3", ½" x 4"), reinforced [plain or impregnated with an antimicrobial] or elastic

• 3"x 3" or 4" x 4" sterile gauze pads (packets of 2 to 5) (such as Nu-Gauze* highly absorbent)

• 5" x 9" or 8" x 10" sterile gauze ("trauma") pads (packets of 2 to 5)

• Nonstick sterile bandages (Telfa*), assorted sizes (used to cover abrasions)

• 1", 2", 3", and 4" rolled conforming gauze (C-wrap* or Elastomull*)

• 1" x 10 yds (9.1 m) rolled cloth adhesive tape

• 1" x 10 yds (9.1 m) rolled paper or silk (hypoallergenic) adhesive tape

• 1" x 10 yds (9.1 m) rolled waterproof adhesive tape

• ½" x 10 yds (9.1 m) rolled waterproof adhesive tape

• Molefoam* (4 1/8 in x 3 3/8 in)

• Moleskin Plus* (4 1/8 in x 3 3/8 in)

• Spenco 2nd Skin* (1.5" x 2", 3" x 4", 3" x 6.5") and Spenco* Adhesive Knit Bandage (3" x 5")

• Tegaderm* transparent wound dressing (also comes in combination with a Steri-Strip in a Wound Closure System)

• Liquid soap

• Sterile disposable surgical scrub brush

• Sterile cotton-tipped swabs or applicators, 2 per package

• Tincture of benzoin, bottle or swabsticks

• Povidone iodine 10% solution (Betadine), 1 oz bottle or swabsticks

• Antiseptic towelettes

Sports First Aid Supplies - Splinting and Sling Material

• Cravat cloth (triangular bandage)

• 2", 3", and 4" elastic wrap (Ace*)

• 4 ¼" x 36" SAM Splints (2)

• Aluminum finger splints

• Eye Medications and Dressings

• Prepackaged individual sterile oval eye pads

• Prepackaged eye bandages (Coverlet Eye Occlusor*)

• Metal or plastic eye shield

• Sterile eyewash, 1 oz (30 ml)

• Contact lens remover

Dental Supplies

• Save-A-Tooth Emergency Tooth Preserving System

Sports First Aid Kits Topical Skin Preparations

• Bacitracin, mupirocin, or bacitracin-neomycin polymyxin B sulphate ointment

• Insect repellent containing DEET

• Sunscreen lotion or cream (SPF 15 or 30)

• Lip balm or sunscreen

• Sunblock

Nonprescription Medications For Your Athletic First Aid Kits

• Ibuprofen, 200 mg tablets

• Acetaminophen, 325 mg tablets

• Antacid

• Decongestant (such as oxymetazoline) nasal spray (to treat a nosebleed that doesn't respond to simple pressure)

• Glutose (liquid glucose) paste tube (to treat a hypoglycemic - low blood sugar - reaction)

Prescription Medications For Your Athletic First Aid Kits

• Metered-dose bronchodilator (albuterol) (to treat an asthma attack)

Allergy Kit

• EpiPen Auto-Injector [0.3 mg] and EpiPen Jr. Auto-Injector [0.15 mg]) or allergy kit with injectable epinephrine (Ana-Kit)

• Diphenhydramine (Benadryl), 25 mg capsules

Other Sports First Aid Supplies

• Other equipment and sports first aid supplies may be available at the venue, but are not usually transported with a youth athletic team, unless there are special circumstances. These include such items as large splints to accommodate major fractures (such as of the thigh), stretcher, and AED (automated external defibrillator).

Dr. Paul S. Auerbach is Professor of Surgery in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center. He is Editor of the definitive textbook Wilderness Medicine and author of Medicine for the Outdoors. Dr. Auerbach is one of the world's leading authorities on emergency medicine and wilderness medicine.

Dawg® offers a variety of sports first aid kits and sports first aid supplies. There are first aid kits for all sports, athletic first aid kits for small to medium to large teams, Sports first aid kits for team trainers and coaches and a variety of sports medicine sprays. Dawg® also offers three types of marine first aid kits which are waterproof to keep sports first aid supplies clean, dry and protected.