Intermediate
1 day
Before we start, we need to give a shout-out to:
We gathered all the information we’re about to share with you from those organizations. Both of them offer Wilderness First Aid certifications. We’re basically summarizing what we learned from them and helping you teach it to your kids.
Our Waypoint in no way replaces having your Wilderness First Aid certification, but we hope it helps prepare you for many of the situations that might happen with your kids. If you plan to go to the backcountry as compared to campgrounds, though, we do recommend taking a class if it’s available in your area.
For a look back on all our waypoints for this car camping series and learn how to find campgrounds and plan your road trip, click here: Summer Summit 2020: Car Camping.
On to the information…
Much of what will happen out in the wilderness with your kids can be dealt with pretty easily with the contents of a first-aid kit. You can make one yourself or buy one from a respected brand like Adventure Medical Kits.
Look for ones that are waterproof or make sure you use a dry bag if you’re making one yourself. If you’re car camping with your kids, it doesn’t matter so much if it’s lightweight or not, but it is a good idea to have a smaller version that is lightweight to take on day hikes.
The picture you see came from the Wilderness and Remote First Aid Emergency Reference Guide by the American Red Cross. It’s a great list of what to include.
Some of the items we find to be especially helpful with kids include:
Gather your contents together and go over each item with your kids. If you don’t have the game Operation yet, now’s the time to get it to least laugh with them while you show them where each item would be used. You want them comfortable with this stuff. If they’ve seen it before, they won’t be as scared of it when the kit comes out during an emergency.
Something happened. You don’t know what, but you need to find out. There are three basic C's you’ll hear over and over when this happens—check, call, and care.
Check is when you assess the situation.
See if you can play pretend with your kids for this one. You don’t want to surprise them and scare them with a bloody mess in the garage or choking on a scone at your next tea party, but you can play a game with them where they check these three things. Make it detective-like. Quiz them on their surroundings with extra playtime if they can answer your questions. Again, this is about making these questions common to them, so their brain kicks in.
The Wilderness and Remote First Aid Emergency Pocket Guide by the American Red Cross is a great resource for this.
With open wounds, you want to apply pressure with sterile dressing using your hand (unless it’s on the head, then cover with bulk dressing). Make sure to check for other wounds inside clothing or underneath the person.
When the bleeding is controlled, you want to clean the area by first washing your hands, then washing the wound with potable water, then covering the wound with sterile dressing.
If the object is still impaled in the person, you have a few options. If it’s small, and you can remove it with tweezers, do so. If it’s huge (like a tree limb), and you can trim it down, also do so. All else, do not remove the object. Wrap your bandage around them. Use a tourniquet ONLY if blood loss is uncontrolled by direct pressure or if direct pressure is not possible.
Open wounds are a tough one to prep for, but wrapping up bandages can be fun for kids. Figure out what works, so you know what style of wrapping will stay put.
There are four main types of bone and joint injuries:
To care for these injuries, first compare the injured site to the uninjured side. Ask them to try to move it on their own, then you try to move it, then try to touch it until you find the spot that noticeably hurts. You also want to check for loss of circulation, sensation, and motion among other areas above the injury site.
Remember the RICE method: rest, immobilize, cold, elevate. In most cases, this is enough with the help of a sling or split. If it’s more serious than that or includes the pelvis, hips, or ribs, consider waiting for medical help to move them.
We bring this one up because weather can get extreme out here in Colorado where Chimney Trail was founded, and because kids are smaller than us and can feel the effects of extreme temperature more easily than we do.
The other thing about extreme heat and cold is a lot of the concerns can be prevented. Buy some hand warmers in bulk. Throw the box in your car and a few in your backpack when you go on a hike. If frostbite is a concern, you want to try and re-warm the area rather than rub it. The hand warmers are great for that.
For hypothermia, make sure to cover all exposed skin, replace wet clothes with dry, and try to get them to eat and exercise to warm them up.
On the reverse side of things, for heat cramps, heat exhaustion, or heat strokes, it’s all about moving the person to a cool, dry place, helping the cooling process by wetting them down and fanning them out, and replacing lost fluids with electrolytes and water (avoid salt tabs, they tend to be too much).
Heat strokes can be especially tricky and worrisome due to their effect on the person. The image you see, again, came from the Wilderness and Remote First Aid Emergency Reference Guide by the American Red Cross and offers guidance on this.
Same as the last one. Out in Colorado, this can get serious. Especially since the most epic of views are from way up top a mountain. You never really know when or why altitude will affect one person or another. You could feel fine, while another struggles, or your youngest could be killing it, while your eldest starts to get dizzy.
It’s important to check in on your kids while hiking at altitude, especially as you cross into the range of 6500 to 8000 feet.
Ask about dizziness, headaches, or nausea and make sure they’re drinking plenty of water before it becomes too much. Because once you feel it, the best way to get rid of it is to just go down in elevation. But it gets trickier to go down the worse the symptoms get, so you want to catch it early. Give your kids time to adjust to the altitude as you go up, but don’t be afraid to turn around if it becomes too much.
Depending on where you’re camping or hiking, the insects, animals, and reptiles that can bite you may vary. Always have your kids wear some sort of bug repellent as a first defense.
If they get a bite, the easy ones - mosquitoes, ticks, and bee or wasps stings - really just have to do with cleaning the bite area and stopping them from scratching it too much. A cold, wet paper towel around the area can do wonders for stopping them from scratching. If the insect is still attached in any way, pull your tweezers out and have at it. You want whatever’s still in there to be removed and quickly and easily as possible.
In case of an allergic reaction to bug bites or snake bites, many parents recommend having chewable Benadryl nearby to help as an antihistamine. It won’t cure any venomous bites, but it will help with their reaction to it. You still want to keep the site of the bite lower than their heart and slow the spread of the venom to their lymph nodes by applying an elastic bandage.
In case of shock or anaphylaxis, it’s all about keeping the person calm, reassured, breathing, at a regular temperature. Do not try to force water on them unless they’re feeling up for it or evacuation is delayed more than 2 hours.
When you’re out in the wilderness and an emergency occurs, your first thought is probably to get out of there. But unnecessarily moving a seriously injured person can become the most dangerous thing you can do.
Only move a seriously injured person if:
If you do need to move them, there are a few different ways you can try:
Ideally, your family would have already discussed your primary and backup communication procedures before leaving for your trip. Consider downloading the CairnMe app to help set up these plans.
If necessary, you may need to send a family member to the closest area with a cell signal to call for help. Make sure you’ve identified where you are on a map and circled that map so they can quickly get back to you.
If you need to send a signal, signal in threes (e.g., three blasts from a whistle).
And make sure every person in the group has their personal care information with them. Sit down and fill out the Personal Information Form with your kids. It’ll give you peace of mind and truly help out any emergency responders if they come upon your children without you.
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