Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-24846659-20140813193020/@comment-5106672-20141027205926

Okay, but why didn't he shield himself and go find Baelfire 28 years before Emma arrived, then? He would have spared himself lots of trouble, including having to bring Magic to Storybrooke to turn him young again.

Maybe it has more to do with the Snow Queen herself. From what it seems so far, her (and Elsa's) magic appears to be somewhat different from regular witchcraft (inborn and not learnt, specifically cryokinetic), and is also implied to be stronger. Perhaps, because of that, the Curse wouldn't have completely worked on her by erasing her memories and binding her to Storybrooke, so Rumple could assign her to watch over Emma.

If this is the case, she could have brought some magical items from the EF in order to sacrifice them and produce whatever small amount of magic could be needed in any case, like Regina did.