"Don't take Tylenol if you're pregnant, and don't give Tylenol to your child," said President Donald Trump in a White House briefing as a result of which many Americans would pull out acetaminophen from their medicine cabinet. While science does not back the claim of acetaminophen causing childhood autism if pregnant mothers consume it, however, the Trump administration has blamed it to cause the rise in autism cases in the recent years. In such a case, what must the parents do? Who can they rely on?Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of Boston University's Center for Autism Research Excellence told NPR, "Are thy [parents] going to listen to people who are not physicians, who have no expertise in autism, or are they going to turn to their medical providers, their treatment providers and ask them what their view of the current science is? That's what they should be doing."However, the truth of the matter is that parents are in fact worried and are wondering what decision must they take. Brian Lee of Drexel University, and one of the authors of the studies on acetaminophen told NPR in an interview rightly points out that while it is important to rely on science, "Who has time to sit there and go through the dozens or hundreds of scientific articles on any given topic?"So, what is the solution? Lee says, it is to trust medical experts. "We trust our experts. And if our experts are telling us one thing, but other experts are saying another thing, it causes confusion."Read: Trump's Claim On Linking Tylenol And Autism Is Unscientific, According To DoctorsNicole Baldwin, MD, a pediatrician from Cincinnati, Ohio, told NPR that any association that's been seen between autism and acetaminophen in studies doesn't necessarily mean there's a causal relationship. The comparison Baldwin provides is of the shark attacks in the summer and eating ice cream in the same season. "But that doesn't mean that one causes the other," she says. "These studies that have been out show correlation, but don't actually show causation," says Baldwin." "And I think that's an important thing for parents to realize — that the science is not known just yet, despite what has been said."Why Is President's Announcement On Tylenol Worrying?While many might argue that one can just avoid Tylenol altogether in pregnancy and "tough it out" like Trump suggested, however, experts in maternal-fetal medicine say that untreated fever is known to be dangerous in pregnancy, and pain is also a problem. So, Trump's repeated comment that there was "no downside" to not taking acetaminophen does not necessarily stand correct. The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine pointed out that "untreated fever, particularly in the first trimester, increases the risk of miscarriage, birth defects, and premature birth."In fact, Baldwin noted that when she was pregnant with her daughter, she had ab mild injury. "And if I hadn't had Tylenol to take, I can't imagine the suffering I would have had for two months," she says. The problem is that there are no other medications that pregnant women can take, this is because other pain and fever reducing drugs have been proven unsafe in pregnancy. For instance, another popular drug, ibuprofen, has been linked to kidney problems in fetuses.
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