Acetaminophen use by moms may have unintended consequences

Urgent: Is this “safe” pain reliever poisoning unborn children?

We already know that acetaminophen is a dangerous drug. Very dangerous. In fact, it’s the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S.

But now it looks like another toxic effect is turning up.

This one puts innocent lives at risk and will give moms new fears about what they may have taken during pregnancy.

A study just published in JAMA shows that the side effects of taking painkillers like Tylenol might extend to unborn babies as well.

The study of over 64,000 moms and their children has shown that kids whose moms took acetaminophen while pregnant were at greater risk of developing ADHD.

In fact, the researchers found that kids exposed to the drug before birth were more than 30 percent more likely to have the disorder.

And it gets even worse.

Another form of even more “severe” ADHD, called hyperkinetic disorder, was upped by 37 percent in those kids!

The longer moms took the drug while pregnant, the better the chances their children would have the condition.

For decades, Tylenol was advertised as being safe for expectant mothers and newborn babies. So it’s no wonder generations of women have turned to it to deal with pain during pregnancy.

But we’re only seeing now that it could affect fetal brain development, says study author Beate Ritz of UCLA, leading to ADHD.

And we all know what a diagnosis of ADHD can mean. Innocent children being drugged for their entire childhood, perhaps for life.

The findings show “the importance of not taking a drug’s safety during pregnancy for granted,” said an editorial by members of the research team.

And that’s especially true with a deceptively dangerous drug like acetaminophen.

Expectant moms might think that all they need to avoid is Tylenol, or a generic version of the drug. Unfortunately, acetaminophen is in so many OTC drugs that you could be taking it and not even know.

One of the study experts advises expectant moms to find other, drug-free ways of dealing with pain, such as warm baths or massages.

It might be the only way to make sure their kids don’t end up on drugs themselves.

Sources:
“Taking acetaminophen during pregnancy is found to have a link later to ADHD in children” Linda Searing, March 3, 2014, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com