Just a quick note to let you know about my piece in The Federalist this week on the recent Tylenol controversy.
I hope you will like it; if so, please share and like and all that social media jazz.
Link to The Federalist piece here.
And if you prefer Facebook, which I don’t have, I think that link can be found here.
Thank you and have a great day!
"Let me repeat: the study being spread around the world claiming to prove Tylenol in pregnancy is not linked to autism did not specifically ask pregnant moms whether or not they were taking Tylenol. Perhaps not the firmest foundation to bet one’s child on."
Every time someone brings up 'a study,' I wonder whether a) they actually read the study, and b) how the study was actually designed.
I came across a bunch of the studies describing the link between acetaminophen and autism not long after the birth of my first baby and as a result aggressively avoided its use in both of my children and my second pregnancy. In my experience doctors (wether pediatricians, ER, OB, or family medicine) do not follow or advocate for minimum use of acetaminophen but instead tell patients that it is perfectly safe. Every single OB appointment my healthcare team told me to remember that Tylenol is perfectly safe and I should take it as needed for my pregnancy aches and pains. I had a previous back injury that was exacerbated by the pregnancy and was working full time plus on call for almost my entire pregnancy, “as needed” would have been multiple times every day almost the entire pregnancy.
Once when the OB mentioned that I shouldn’t be afraid to use Tylenol as needed because it was “perfectly safe” I asked him how we actually knew that since acetaminophen was essentially grandfathered in and no real safety studies in pregnant women had been done. To his credit he acknowledged this but said basically well it’s been in use long enough and often enough that we would know if there were problems.
When we took my son to the ER for a fever that we couldn’t get to break (the local doctors at the time were sending all respiratory or possible Covid cases to the ER and not allowing them in clinic) we were basically told not to bring our kid to a doctor for a fever without at least trying Tylenol first. Turns out he had a bacterial pneumonia (we had all just gotten over influenza) and the cough we had been told was post viral and might last for six weeks was the only other symptom of his infection than his fever. Had we given him Tylenol who knows how much worse his pneumonia would have gotten before we sought treatment.
I also wonder if the switch from prescribing opioids for post op and other pain to a combo of acetaminophen and ibuprofen has lead to an increase in acetaminophen related complications. When I’ve had that combo recommended the doctor never discussed that perhaps this combo should be held in reserve for pain above a certain level. I know lots of people who go straight to the combo for any pain, discomfort, or fever.