Band-Aids

Yep, you read it correctly - Band-Aids. Those Johnson & Johnson brand name adhesive bandages sometimes referred to as plasters that we use to protect wounds from infection. My boys love them. LOVE them. Especially my youngest. He is always covered in them & regularly asked by passers by in a soothing voice if he'd hurt his finger/hand/arm/leg/foot. It's a rare occasion when he's actually using a Band-Aid for its intended purpose.

The history behind Band-Aids is kind of cool. Earle Dickson, a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson invented the Band-Aid in 1921 to protect his wife's fingers as she was frequently cutting them whilst preparing food. A head honcho at J&J (enough name dropping, eh) was so impressed he promoted Earle and they started making Band-Aids, initially by hand. They didn't really take off until 1924 when they were machine made and the first decorative Band-Aids didn't come about until 1951 when patriotic stars and stripes and Sesame Street were the rage.

Today Band-Aids come in all sorts of prints with the favourites in our household currently The Wiggles & The Simpsons. Naturally other brands make them too so we have some non Band-Aid brand adhesives with Shrek &, until recently, boxes of Spiderman, Nemo, Pooh Bear & The Incredibles (the latter ones a gift brought back from Canada from some friends whose kids have the same passion for these sticky little numbers).

Thankfully Band-Aids don't seem to have gone up much in price in the last 80 odd years yet Australian's are still managing to spend something like $30 million a year on them - that's a lot of Band-Aid passionate kids, eh?