Ibuprofen Best for Kids' Injury Pain

Indeed, said Clark, codeine does have the reputation among many doctors of being the better choice.

But the results are actually good news, Woo said. He personally does not like to use codeine for kids' pain management because "it spaces them out," he said.

Will the study results change prescribing habits in emergency departments when kids are brought in acute pain? "I hope so," Clark said. "This is a very common problem that all kinds of doctors and emergency pediatricians see."

In the pediatric department he studied, Clark wrote, about 10 percent of all visits are for these kinds of musculoskeletal injuries.

The take-home message for parents? "When we send parents home with children with bumps, bruises and broken bones, we suggest parents use ibuprofen as well," Clark said. That also goes, he said, for treating musculoskeletal injuries not severe enough to seek medical care.

More information

To learn more about pain relievers, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians.

SOURCES: Eric Clark, M.D., emergency medicine specialist, University of Ottawa School of Medicine, Ottawa, Canada; Dennis Woo, M.D., chair of pediatrics, Santa Monica-UCLA and Orthopaedic Hospital, Santa Monica, Calif.; March 2007,Pediatrics