Introduction: Massage is a popularly used complementary and alternative therapy. Previous randomised controlled trials have examined the effects of massage on children, and several systematic reviews have been conducted to synthesise these data. This study aims to assess and summarise the current evidence from published systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials on the practice of paediatric massage, specifically in infants and children aged < 5 years. Methods and analysis: This protocol was developed based on the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews of Interventions and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols. The online databases MEDLINE, Embase, Health Technology Assessment Database, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Allied and Complementary Medicine, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Data will be searched from the inception to June 2020 for evidence of the treatment effects. We will include systematic reviews of randomised control trials in infants and children aged < 5 years. Two reviewers will independently screen the articles for inclusion as per the eligibility criteria. They will extract information from the included studies and assess the methodological quality of the included studies. In addition, a systematic review of the adverse effects of massage on infants and children aged < 5 years will be included in this overview. We will present the treatment effects and adverse effects narratively. The pooled effect estimates for meta-analysed outcomes from the included studies will be extracted when possible. Additionally, we will generate a figure to show the recommendation level of massage therapy for each condition included according to the evidence quality of the studies included in the systematic reviews.Discussion: This overview of systematic reviews will summarise the current evidence on massage, specifically for infants and children aged < 5 years. We will comprehensively present the positive effects and adverse effects of this intervention.Trial registration number: CRD42020186003
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