TORONTO \u2014 When U.S. President Donald Trump urged pregnant women to avoid Tylenol because of an unproven belief it can cause autism, Julie Green was brought back to the mom-blaming claims she heard more than a decade ago when her son was diagnosed with the condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed like every couple months there was some new headline. And there was still a lot of like, \u2018Oh, did mom do this? Did mom do that?\u2019 A lot of things were tied to pregnancy. And every now and then you\u2019d brace yourself and you\u2019d think, \u2018Oh, what did I do?’\u201d said Green, who learned her son had autism when he was three.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou question absolutely everything,\u201d she said from her home in Kingston, Ont. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds like a very ludicrous example, but I had real meat cravings when I was pregnant. So I ate a lot of McDonald\u2019s and it\u2019s like, \u2018uh-oh, therefore did eating a lot of Big Macs cause autism?\u201d <\/p>\n
Experts say there is no single identifiable cause for autism spectrum disorder, but genetics play a large role. Long after her son, now almost 17, was diagnosed, Green learned at age 44 that she herself had ASD. Now she is a volunteer speaker for Autism Ontario.<\/p>\n
Researchers are investigating other possible factors to see if they might interact with genetics to increase risk, but large well-designed studies have shown Tylenol is not one of them, said Dr. Evdokia Anagnostou, a pediatric neurologist and co-lead of the Autism Research Centre at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto.<\/p>\n
Anagnostou and other autism experts say the warning from Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in September is a harmful throwback to a time when moms were wrongly blamed for their children\u2019s autism. <\/p>\n
For decades, starting in the 1940s, psychiatrists subscribed to the \u201crefrigerator mother\u201d theory that children developed autism because their mothers were emotionally cold and didn\u2019t give them enough affection.<\/p>\n
The understanding of autism was \u201cplagued\u201d by that theory until it was debunked decades ago, said Anagnostou, who said present-day claims about Tylenol is fostering fresh guilt among mothers and moms-to-be.<\/p>\n
In the wake of Trump\u2019s comments, she said the centre received calls from anxious parents asking \u201care you sure I didn\u2019t harm my child in pregnancy, because I remember I had a cold? I remember I had an infection. I know I took Tylenol.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot be irresponsible and talk about exposures during pregnancy and blame moms for the generation of neurodevelopmental conditions when we know them to be highly genetic,\u201d Anagnostou said. <\/p>\n
Dr. Karen Wou, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, said women are \u201calready avoiding everything possible while they\u2019re pregnant\u201d and Tylenol is one of the few safe medications they can take.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe science is very clear about this topic,\u201d said Wou. \u201cIt is safe when it is used for the indication that it\u2019s used for in the lowest dose in the lowest time possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
In fact, not taking it when needed has potential consequences \u2014 including a heightened risk of autism. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t treat your fever, if you don\u2019t treat your pain, then you can have complications,\u201d Wou said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about benign things. We\u2019re talking about preterm delivery and baby with anomalies and mom being anxious and depressed, which could obviously affect the pregnancy in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wou said the misinformation about Tylenol is also \u201cdefinitely not going to help\u201d the mom guilt that happens before babies are even born. <\/p>\n
\u201cMoms are worried about everything,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they have a miscarriage, when there\u2019s a complication in the pregnancy, (when) there\u2019s an anomaly in the baby, the first thing they do is wonder if they did anything wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voula Athanasopoulos, whose autistic son is 28 and mostly non-verbal, said her mom guilt started with questioning whether she had done something wrong during pregnancy and morphed into questioning whether she\u2019s doing enough as a parent. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou compare how your pregnancy was and did you sleep enough? Were you under a lot of stress? Did you take medication?\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be able to get rid of that feeling,\u201d said Athanasopoulos, whose son lives with her in Mississauga, Ont.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always trying to see, is there something else that I can do where I can give him a better quality of life? And then I keep thinking I\u2019ve tried everything and what else am I missing out on?\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
At the same time, both Athanasopoulos and Green said they don\u2019t want mom guilt to interfere with appreciating their children for who they are. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe what-ifs and the self-blame and everything like that, it\u2019s got to stop because you need to move on and you need to live day by day,\u201d said Athanasopoulos.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son has made me a better person, a better mom, a better human being. I see the world differently. And I thank God for him every day.\u201d <\/p>\n
Instead of trying to find a cause, time and money would be better spent ensuring autistic people and their families get the evidence-based supports they need, said Green, who described her son as smart, creative and funny. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would tell mothers: trust science and step away from blame and analyzing. You\u2019ll just get locked in these spirals of shame and it really just takes you away from accepting and loving the child you have.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n
Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 When U.S. President Donald Trump urged pregnant women to avoid Tylenol because of an unproven belief…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":288747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-288746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115343194213616208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}