New Evidence on What to Tell Anxious Parents About Analgesics for Younger Children

Parents are wary of bringing their children to the emergency room, the urgent care center, or even their own pediatrician’s office these days. That doesn’t mean children have stopped getting sick, of course. The go-to recommendations for children with pain or fever have been ibuprofen or acetaminophen, but does it really make a difference which one you recommend? A new study just published by JAMA Network suggests it might, actually. A meta-analysis of 19 studies that included a total of 241,138 participants found that ibuprofen performed better in reducing temperature at less than 4 hours and in the 4- to 24-hour period after administration. Safety outcomes, including serious adverse events, kidney impairment, gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatotoxicity, severe soft tissue infection, empyema, and asthma and/or wheeze were similar between the two.