Could Use of Tylenol in Pregnancy be the Culprit for ADHD & Autism in Children?

Something that has been on my mind lately is the question, “what causes kids to have ADHD or Autism?” I think it can be a number of things. I personally think that what we put in our bodies during pregnancy has a huge effect on our fetus and future child. People tend to forget that during the first trimester, the brain stem is developing. All of the nerves and synapses are firing and trying to make their way into existence, and when we throw chemicals at them, well, it could cause some wires to cross improperly. It seems like common sense to me. On the other hand, I also think certain behavior issues come from what we let our children do & what we feed them as infants and small children.

A recent study found that women who used Tylenol frequently during pregnancy had a WAY higher change of having a child with ADHD or Autism. It certainly is interesting and does fit into my theory that what we put in our bodies during pregnancy can absolutely have a major effect on the baby. I understand that pregnancy can be difficult with lots of aches and pains, so ultimately, one must decide if the risk outweighs the benefits. I took tylenol a few times during my pregnancy with Pearl, but didn’t continue because I think Tylenol is crap & doesn’t work for me. I’m an ibuprofen kind of gal, but we know pregnant women can’t use it. So, I was pretty much screwed.

Here is a summary of what the study showed:

•  Moms who used the pain reliever to treat things like headaches or to reduce fevers saw a 37% increased risk in their kids receiving an ADHD diagnosis and a 29% increased risk in the chances that their kids needed ADHD medications compared with moms who didn’t use the over-the-counter medication at all.
•  The participants included mothers and singleton children born in Denmark between 1996 and 2002 and registered in the Danish National Birth Cohort, so it included a diverse group of mothers from different social and environmental backgrounds.
• The latest investigations from the neuroscientists studying developmental and behavioral disorders like autism and ADHD suggest that problems in the connection between different brain regions may contribute to the symptoms of these conditions, and hormone disruptions in utero, triggered by acetaminophen, may unbalance the brain enough to make certain children more vulnerable to autism or hyperactivity later in life.
• The more often a woman took the drug during pregnancy, the higher the child’s ADHD risk was. Children of women who reported using acetaminophen for 20 or more weeks during pregnancy had almost double the risk of hyperkinetic disorders, the researchers said.

-information sourced from below articles

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