Finally. A Clever First Aid Kit for Families

You’ve safety proofed your entire house: light socket plugs, locks on the kitchen cabinets, cleaning supplies are out of reach of little hands, gates block your stairs top and bottom. Good job. Now quick, your child has a bee sting, what do you do? Chances are you panic, start looking frantically through parenting books for an answer and then tear apart your medicine cabinet before calling 911.

First, don’t feel bad, most parents - even those who diligently safety proof their house and don’t let their kids eat junk food - fall short when it comes to planning for household medical issues. Second, relax; there is a fix courtesy of Richelle and Pete Nassos, founders of me4kidz and creators of the medibag™ a portable ‘doctor’s’ bag for parents and children.
You see, several years ago, Richelle found herself in the same bee sting situation above. Her son Cody was stung while playing around the pool and immediately had an allergic reaction. Richelle quickly tore through every book she had and luckily found an answer, but the event stuck with her. Soon after the bee incident, Richelle and Pete researched the 25 most common household injuries and accidents that kids have and the medibag™ was born.The medibag™ is designed with kids in mind. The contents contain the usual bandages, gauze, and thermometers, but it also includes kid and family focused products like insect sting relief pads, a CD on safety proofing the home, eyewash, a yellow babysitter pad, a quick reference first aid flip chart, and Kids QR™ - a pad that instantly stops bleeding.

The kid friendly nature of medibag™ does not stop with the contents (of which there are 72, by the way); Richelle and Pete understood early on that conventional medical supplies, which by their nature are sterile and impersonal, often intimidated kids. “When I bought first aid kits in the past, not only did I want to look through them, but I wanted my kids to be interested, too,” says Richelle. Since kids would be the recipients of aid and also might need to use it themselves, the medibag™ would need to be aesthetically pleasing to kids and easy for them to use. So, after two years of research and hands-on focus groups, they designed the medibag™ to be like a children’s doctor’s bag, with a bright red exterior and easy to use and understand compartments in case your child needs to use the bag. Plus the bag is made of sturdy molded plastic so it can be dropped and will not suffer for it. The bag also comes with stickers so that kids can ‘fun-ify’ it.

“After the first time, most kits are a complete disaster,” says Richelle. So Richelle and Pete made the medibag™ customizable - you can add various products for your family - and the compartments are set-up so that all of the contents actually stay organized and in the right spot - even if the kit is tossed around in the trunk of your car.

Initial results are very promising for me4kidz. Since the official launch of the medibag™ in December 2005, they’re already in 28 retail and 29 online stores - including two major coups: Amazon.com and Chelsea & Scott, the legal entity behind One Step Ahead and Leaps and Bounds.

So how does the Nassos family handle launching a business, securing patents and trademarks, navigating US manufacturing details, and managing a family and household at the same time? “I couldn’t do it without my faith. We laugh, we giggle, we have fun, we have our spirit and our minds, we have this business and this concept,” says Richelle.”You can’t buy that at Nordstrom’s!”

Learn more about the medibag™ and buy it for $29.95 (over an $80 value) at www.me4kidz.com

Richelle and Pete Nassos, founders of me4kidz and inventors of the medibag™, are Clever Parents to Cody, 7, and Luke, 9 months.