According to a statement from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, ibuprofen is the ideal painkiller for kids with fractures, which make up between 10 percent and 25 percent of all children’s injuries.

“Evidence suggests that orally administered morphine and other opioids are increasingly being prescribed,” says Naveen Poonai, London Health Sciences Centre and Western University. “However, evidence for the oral administration of morphine in acute pain management is limited. Thus, additional studies are needed to address this gap in knowledge and provide a scientific basis for outpatient analgesic choices in children.”

Researchers compared oral morphine with ibuprofen to determine if oral morphine was better at mitigating pain in children with fractures that did not need surgery. They discovered that both pain relievers were able to alleviate pain, but oral morphine was linked with more unfavorable events, like drowsiness, nausea and vomiting.

“Given that morphine was associated with significantly more adverse effects, we conclude that ibuprofen remains a safe and effective therapy for outpatient management of children’s fracture pain,” conclude the authors. “We hope that our results will provide clinicians with a foundation for rational analgesic choices for children with fractures who are discharged from the emergency department.”

According to Drugs.com, ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that words by decreasing hormones that can cause inflammation and pain in the body. It is used to reduce fever and treat pain or inflammation caused by numerous conditions.