What to do the moment your child gets injured (it's not ice and ibuprofen)

The advice you grew up with has changed.

Most parents were taught RICE — Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation — and reach for the ice pack and the ibuprofen on instinct. The science has moved on. The current framework is called PEACE & LOVE, and it makes a pointed change: in the early days after a typical soft-tissue injury, it advises avoiding ice and anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen, because inflammation is part of how the body heals — and damping it down too aggressively may slow that healing. I back this position. If a physio you see has never heard of it, that itself tells you something.

PEACE — the first few days.

Think protect, don't shut down. The early steps:

• Protect. Limit movement that hurts for the first day or two — but avoid complete rest. Total immobilisation isn't the goal (the main exceptions are a suspected fracture or severe injury — those go straight to a professional).
• Elevate the limb when resting.
• Avoid anti-inflammatories and ice as the default early response.
• Compress to help manage swelling.
• Educate. Understand that the body heals well on its own with sensible loading — you usually don't need passive treatments and "just in case" scans.

LOVE — as the pain settles.

Once the sharp early phase passes, gentle activity is the medicine, not the risk:

• Load. Reintroduce movement and gentle loading as pain allows — the tissue gets stronger by being asked to work.
• Optimism. Confidence and a calm head genuinely affect recovery; anxiety slows it.
• Vascularisation. Easy pain-free activity that gets the blood moving aids healing.
• Exercise. Rebuild mobility, strength and balance before full return.

Pain in a recovering body is information, not weakness. Read it, don't override it.

How to read whether gentle loading is helping.

The simple home rule for whether activity is doing good or harm: gentle loading is fine if the pain doesn't climb while they're doing it, settles within about an hour of stopping, and is no worse the next morning. If it fails any of those three, back off and give it more time — or get it looked at. And the line I'll always hold: never treat a child's pain as a test of character. "Push through it" is the worst instinct in youth sport. Pain is the body giving you data — your job is to read it, not to override it.

This guide is for understanding and decisions at home — it isn't a diagnosis or treatment plan. For a suspected fracture, a joint that won't bear weight, severe or worsening pain, or anything that worries you, see a doctor or physiotherapist.