Tylenol caplets are displayed on September 22, 2025 in San Anselmo, California.
Picture Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures
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Picture Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures
This week, President Trump urged pregnant ladies to “robust it out” and take Tylenol sparingly on the premise that there is a hyperlink between the energetic ingredient within the ache killer, acetaminophen, and autism.
Medical consultants have strongly pushed again on the steerage, arguing that such claims are deceptive and analysis exhibits there’s no causal hyperlink between acetaminophen and autism. The Meals and Drug Administration additionally later clarified that “whereas an affiliation between acetaminophen and autism has been described in lots of research, a causal relationship has not been established and there are opposite research within the scientific literature.”
Nonetheless, the remarks on Monday sparked confusion, fear and guilt amongst pregnant ladies and households with youngsters who’ve autism. Medical students say it is a part of a sample within the historical past of drugs and autism analysis.
“ We actually have a protracted historical past of blaming moms on this nation, and we’re seeing that bolstered via the narratives round autism’s causes proper now,” stated Martine Lappé, a sociology professor at California Polytechnic State College, San Luis Obispo, who has studied how autism science and advocacy have affected households.
Autism spectrum dysfunction, as it’s formally known as, is a fancy neurodevelopmental situation, with a variety of traits and assist ranges. There are greater than 100 genes related to it. Traditionally, efforts to discover a singular trigger for autism has led to scrutinizing dad and mom and fueling stigma about autism, Lappé added.
Within the mid-Twentieth century, working mothers have been wrongly related to autism
Within the Forties, not lengthy after autism was acknowledged as a definite situation, blame shortly fell on moms — particularly these with careers or school levels.
The main baby psychiatrist on the time, Leo Kanner, noticed that a lot of his younger sufferers with autism had moms who have been extremely educated or working professionals, and in addition appeared emotionally chilly. Kanner concluded {that a} lack of parental heat drove youngsters to retreat into behaviors related to autism, in what later turned often known as the “fridge mother” principle.
“ A chilly mom, on the time, just about meant an mental mom, a mom who had different pursuits apart from elevating her youngsters,” stated Marga Vicedo, a historian of science on the College of Toronto, Canada, who has printed a ebook on the historical past of the “fridge mother” principle.
In accordance with Vicedo, the variety of educated moms in Kanner’s research may have been defined by different elements, like the truth that a lot of them got here from middle-to-upper class backgrounds, the place greater training was extra widespread.
Nonetheless, the idea grew in recognition — partly as a result of it emerged amid rising tensions between ladies getting into the workforce and societal strain for ladies to return to conventional roles at dwelling within the post-World Struggle II period.
“On the finish of day, saying it is a mom’s fault is a really sturdy and highly effective means of preserving moms as the primary caretakers,” she stated.
The “fridge mother” principle had devastating impacts on moms — fueling disgrace, guilt and even dangerous practices. Within the Sixties, baby psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim advocated for separating autistic youngsters from their moms, in response to Vicedo.
Over time, as analysis more and more pointed to genetics as a significant component in autism, the idea was discredited. Mother and father and particularly moms additionally turned extra vocal in difficult claims that they have been guilty.
At the moment, Vicedo stated she sees parallels between the rhetoric round “fridge mothers” and “Tylenol” — primarily within the tendency to pin autism on a singular trigger, regardless of its complexity.
“The continued concentrate on what moms do locations an amazing burden and lots of stress on them,” she stated.
Vaccine skepticism and the tendency to oversimplify autism
A number of many years after the “fridge mother” principle was debunked, a brand new wrongdoer was entrance and heart: vaccines.
In 1998, researcher Andrew Wakefield claimed there was a hyperlink between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, also referred to as the MMR vaccine.
Wakefield’s examine has since been retracted, his declare has been repeatedly disproven and he misplaced his medical license within the U.Ok. However that course of took time and sources which may have gone towards different autism analysis, in response to Lappé from Cal Poly.
Much like the “fridge mother” principle, Lappé stated the vaccine autism delusion positioned an excessive amount of concentrate on dad and mom’ selections for a situation that is largely genetic and multi-faceted.
“Moms, I believe, felt lots of particular person blame and accountability if their youngsters did have autism,” she stated.
In accordance with Lappé, these deceptive narratives on causation additionally take consideration away from extra significant and productive conversations, like entry to healthcare, childcare and analysis that promotes neurodiversity.
“ If the objective is really to advertise well being and wellness, then we’d like insurance policies that assist what we all know moms and caregivers want,” she stated.
Tylenol and the strain to ‘robust it out’
Medical consultants and students fear that the current claims about Tylenol put pregnant ladies and households in a tough bind.
“ It actually places ladies and moms and medical suppliers on this actually difficult state of affairs as a result of ladies are actually being instructed differing tales from totally different people,” stated Dr. Rachel Follmer, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Youngsters’s Hospital of Chicago, who sees sufferers with autism.
Follmer can also be fearful that pregnant ladies would possibly keep away from treating ache altogether to keep away from Tylenol, which is the mostly beneficial ache reliever throughout being pregnant. Ignoring fevers or ache also can pose critical well being dangers, Follmer added.
In accordance with the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicationan “untreated fever, notably within the first trimester, will increase the chance of miscarriage, start defects, and untimely start.”
Sarah Richardson, a professor of the historical past of science, in addition to research of ladies, gender and sexuality at Harvard College, stated the remarks about Tylenol additionally put ladies ready to be scrutinized, like whether or not they’re doing sufficient or sacrificing sufficient for his or her youngsters.
“ We reside in an period of intensive strain round parenting and expectations that one will do no matter attainable to optimize final result,” she stated. “And there is little or no tolerance for the concept that there are lots of issues not below our management.”
