To ask what is too old for the fist aid kit?

[PineConeWar]

Going through the household first aid kit.
Paracetamol exp 2013; 2017
Dioralyte 2015
Aspirin 2016
Ibuprofen 2017
Kids ibuprofen 2019

Disinfectant drops 2019
Antiseptic Cream 2019
Antihistamine cream 2018

Would you still use any of that? Or throw it all?

I wouldn't bin it.

E.g. Diarolyte is basically salts isn't it? Salt doesn't go off.

(I'm not a pharmacist though!)

My usual rule is that anything that you put in you should go, and anything you put on you is probably okay.

Your meds are a bit too old for me - I don't think they'd do much harm, but they might well not be efficacious any longer. I have no worries using them a few months out of date, but some of those are many years over.

Disclaimer: no medical qualifications here.

I would throw them all out as a lot of those meds are 5 years past the expiry date.

Don't put it in the bin. It will leach into the ground. Take it to the pharmacist.

I think most tablet medication will be ok but possibly slightly less potent.

Absolutely DON’T use out of date eye drops though! My dad did and had a weird reaction.

There is a reason they put an expiry date on it.

Personally I wouldn't use any aspirin, paracetamol etc which is years out of date. A few months and then bin here.
The creams and drops I'd keep and use.

I can't see why old Diaoralyte should be a problem. Willing to be corrected though!

I would agree re: eye drops, but I've never had a bad reaction from out of date paracetamol etc. It may have been slightly less effective, but I'm ok with that.

A couple of months out of date I’d be fine with but your stuff is really, really old. I’d bin the lot.

I’d bin it all.
Replacing most of those items is very cheap, why bother giving medication that at least might be ineffective and at worst might cause a condition to worsen?
Pharmacy will accept it for safe disposal.

" Diarolyte is basically salts isn't it? Salt doesn't go off."

There's other ingredients in it, glucose, sodium chloride, potassium chloride and disodium hydrogen citrate, saccharin sodium, silicon dioxide. All of then have a shelf life.

Bin them all, at best they won't work, at worst they'll cause a reaction. Why would you keep them?

with but your stuff is really, really old.
Not as old as I feel right now
On the plus side, I've a lot of free space in the cupboard!

Bin it

They're not expensive to replace (although if you haven't used them in that long do you need to - aside from maybe antihistamine?) So I would just bin. At worst they could cause an adverse reaction at best they won't work as well.

Bin them all, they’re not just a couple of months out of date, they’re many years out of date. And are cheap and easy to replace.

Bin it all

I was hoping this was going to be about bandages and dressings. I have a kit with sterile dressings in it which is well out of date . My thinking is that an individually packed dressing is likely to be better than a clean teatowel in an emergency (although obviously it would be better to have ones that are in date). Can anyone tell me if that is correct? Or AIBU?

You should hand expired stuff in to a pharmacy, not bin it.

My personal opinion:

Get rid of the drops immediately
Get rid of the creams/ointments immediately if they've been opened, replace and then get rid if not.

Personally I don't give my kids expired medications so I'd get rid of that

Everything else I'd look to replace, then get rid as/when you've replaced it.

Everything else I'd look to replace, then get rid as/when you've replaced it.
About half is unopened things that MIL brought round as she was shocked we/I didn't have them in my cupboard. We've never used them. I don't think I'll bother replacing everything tbh.

I have a kit with sterile dressings in it which is well out of date . My thinking is that an individually packed dressing is likely to be better than a clean teatowel in an emergency
I think I'd agree. But then, look at my track record

What would your absolute bare basics home first aid kit contain?

**DO NOT BIN MEDICATION!!!!!
Bring it to your pharmacy for proper safe disposal

@Ozanj

Bin it all

Don't bin it ffs. Take it to the pharmacy. It will only end up in a river and poisoning fish or something if you chuck it in the bin.

As someone who works in pharmaceuticals I can tell you that you should bin them. All drugs are kept at a MAX 2 yrs after expiry but mostly 1 yr after so if you had an adverse reaction to any of those you haven't got a leg to stand on essentially.

There's so many things that can go wrong with drugs past their expiration (stability trial time) chemically,physically, etc the toxicity and potency can be effected. The dissolution and disintegration times and effects can be hindered etc etc

Get rid of them via your pharmacy.

And when I say all drugs are kept, I mean kept by the pharmaceutical companies. They are kept a year after expiry for a reason...well...lots of reasons