The first aid kit required in childcare

“A first aid kit” sounds like a small matter. In a childcare service it is not. The regulation does not ask for a kit — it sets its contents, item by item, and attaches four conditions to it. Compliance turns on those conditions far more than on the contents, which can simply be bought.

Who must have one

In an installation, the permit holder must equip the premises of every installation they operate. In home childcare, the responsible person must equip the residence where she provides the service. In both cases the kit must comply with Schedule I of the regulation.

School-based childcare falls under a different regulation, and the contrast is striking: it only requires that staff have a kit kept out of students’ reach, without setting its contents. Same word, two regimes.

The required contents

Schedule I lists seventeen items, sizes included. It is not a shopping suggestion.

• A general first aid manual
• At least 1 pair of bandage scissors
• At least 1 pair of splinter tweezers
• Several pairs of disposable gloves
• A disposable protective device for cardiopulmonary resuscitation
• Sterile adhesive dressings in various sizes, individually wrapped
• Sterile gauze compresses (102 mm × 102 mm)
• Sterile pressure dressings, individually wrapped
• A roll of hypoallergenic adhesive tape (25 mm × 9 m)
• Rolls of sterile gauze bandage (50 mm × 9 m and 102 mm × 9 m)
• Eye dressings
• Antiseptic wipes for hand disinfection, individually wrapped
• Alcohol swabs for disinfecting instruments
• At least 1 electronic thermometer with disposable covers, for axillary temperature
• Triangular bandages
• Safety pins
• Sealable plastic bags for collecting contaminated items

Two details often go unnoticed. The manual required is a general first aid manual, while staff training itself must be adapted to early childhood. And the thermometer must be electronic, with disposable covers, and intended for axillary temperature — not just any thermometer will do at inspection time.

The four conditions that make it compliant

The contents are the easy part. It is the conditions around the kit that separate a compliant one from a merely well-stocked one.

• Unlocked.
• Kept out of children’s reach.
• Accessible at all times to staff — in home childcare, to the responsible person, her replacement and, where applicable, her assistant.
• Adapted, in quantity, to the number of children received.

The first two read awkwardly together, and that is where the mistake creeps in: to keep the kit out of children’s reach, it goes in a cupboard… which gets locked. The regulation forbids exactly that. The answer it points to is a matter of height, not of locks: a high shelf, never a padlock. A locked kit is a kit you do not open in time.

The fourth is not a number. The regulation says “adapted to the number of children received” and stops there. So it is on you to be able to explain your choice: a service with six children and an installation with sixty are not equipped the same way.

The epinephrine auto-injector is not in the kit

This is the most important point on this page, and the most counterintuitive.

The auto-injector is not in Schedule I: it is a medication, and it follows the rules for medications. Those rules require medications to be stored out of children’s reach, away from food, toxic products and cleaning products — and, in an installation, under lock and key.

The epinephrine auto-injector is an explicit exception: it must not be stored under lock and must be accessible to staff — or, in home childcare, to the responsible person, her replacement and her assistant. In other words: everything else locked, that one never.

Two conditions come with it. Administering it requires written authorization from the parent, and the medication must be covered by a protocol established under the Act — that mechanism is what allows it to be administered without a health professional’s authorization. In an installation, the permit holder must also designate in writing the person or persons authorized to administer medications.

What the kit does not contain

No medication appears in Schedule I, and that is not an oversight. A medication may be kept or administered only if it is provided by the parent, in its original container labelled with the child’s name, and authorized in writing by the parent and by a health professional empowered to prescribe it — the pharmacist’s label serves as that professional’s authorization. An expired medication may not be kept: it is returned to the parent.

The regulation does allow a short list of products to be administered without a professional’s authorization: saline nasal solutions, oral rehydration solutions, diaper rash cream, single-use lubricating gel for taking temperature, moisturizer, lip balm, calamine lotion and sunscreen.

What about the workplace kit?

An installation is also a place where people work, and workplace first aid falls under an entirely different regime: the CNESST’s, with kits compliant with the CSA Z1220 standard. The two lists share neither contents nor logic.

This page will not settle how the two regimes fit together for a CPE or a daycare — that is a question for the CNESST and your coordinating office. One thing is certain: a kit sold as “CSA Z1220 compliant” is not, for that reason alone, compliant with Schedule I. What the workplace regime requires, for its part.

Keeping it up

The regulation sets the contents; it does not describe a checking routine. That part is on you, and three habits are enough: replace what was used the same day, write a check date on the kit itself, and watch expiry dates — antiseptic wipes and the resuscitation barrier device have them.

The regulation also requires a functional, accessible telephone, and a list of emergency numbers posted in plain view, including the Centre antipoison du Québec. A complete kit next to an unreachable phone is not worth much.

Before relying on this page

The above reflects the text of the regulation, current as of September 2026. Your situation may involve particulars this page does not cover. The regulatory text governs, and your coordinating office or the Ministère de la Famille settles individual cases.

Which training staff must hold, the courses on offer and their dates, or the prices charged in Quebec.

Sources: Educational Childcare Regulation (CQLR S-4.1.1, r. 2), sections 34, 91, 101, 117, 118, 120, 121, 121.1, 121.4 and Schedule I; Regulation respecting childcare services in schools (CQLR I-13.3, r. 11), section 13.