24/09/2025
A few thing to understand about Autism, Tylenol, and Pregnancy
♾️ 💊 🤰 👨🍼
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*Autism was first diagnosed--
more than a decade before Tylenol was even available by prescription (yeah...it wasn't OTC until 1960)
So the earliest Autistics we know of, were NOT exposed to Tylenol.
⌛️
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*But decades before, we didn't SEE Autistic people out in the world. Where did they come from?
We didn't see them because the ones who were "obviously Autistic" were locked away in asylums or care homes. 🏥
And we didn't see them because the ones who could hide some of their Autistic traits, BUT WENT UNSUPPORTED for their disabilities--
SUFFERED
mentally and physically. 😪
The "masked Autistics" had a high rate of unal*ving. They had a lower than average life expectancy.
Gee...
if your child was blind and never got supports for his/her disability, do you think he/she would be likely to grow up, live long enough to have children, and get old? 👩🦯🦮
Nope.
We have more Autistic children, partially because we know more about how to support people with disabilities,
and so they are LIVING LONGER AND HEALTHIER LIVES. 💪
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*It reminds me of how, when I was growing up, it was so rare to see adults who were left handed. ◀️👈
My brother had been left handed, but the nuns at his school wouldn't let him use his left hand. So he had to learn to use his right.
They said writing with the left hand was a pathology and would make him evil. 😈
Now I meet left handed teens, pretty commonly!
They ALWAYS EXISTED, but now they are ALLOWED to be openly left handed.
And they are NOT evil. 😇 🤩😊
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*A study of over 1 MILLION families, looking at Tylenol use during pregnancy, 🤰
determined that when parental genetics were accounted for
(So...when someone looked at whether at least ONE of the parents of the Autistic child was ALSO Autistic),
any increase in people who used Tylenol during pregnancy having Autistic babies, DISSAPPEARED.
In other words....We know what causes Autism.... GENETIC INHERITANCE.
If Mom or Dad or both are Autistic, baby is more likely to be Autistic, too. 👨👩👦👦
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*But why, when you leave genetics out of it... 🧬
does it LOOK like Autistic babies are slightly more likely to be born to women who use Tylenol in pregnancy?
Why are politicians getting so confused about this? 🤔
Well...because you CAN'T leave genetics out of it.
Autistic folks are more likely to experience chronic pain from hypermobility, 🤕
and to have weak immune systems due to the stress of masking in a world that doesn't accomodate disability. 🤒
So Autistic people in general may be more likely to need pain relief...and fever relief...including PREGNANT Autistic people.
And when you are pregnant, doctors advise against most other OTC pain relief options. (No Asprin, no Ibuprofen).
It's a CORRELATION not a CAUSATION.
My kids are more likely to beg me for candy if they see it being sold in the grocery store aisle, while we try to check out.
But the grocery store doesn't make them crave candy. 🍬
Babies are wired to prefer sweets. And my kids will also beg for candy at home and when we are at the park.
Plus, they know I usually buy some kind of treat when I buy food, so if they SEE candy when I am buying food, they are likely to ask for it.
If they see TOYS when I am buying food, they are just as likely to ask for THOSE instead. Last week, the grocery store had bubble wands at the checkout. And yeah...they asked for bubbles.
The grocery store doesn't MAKE my kids beg for candy. Its candy PLACEMENT contributes. But my kids just like sugar and crave the dopamine they get from buying ANYTHING.
It's a correlation, NOT a CAUSATION.
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*But how come there are just SO many Autistic folks, now?
Well...2 reasons.
1) Until 2013, doctors did not realize people could have BOTH ADHD and Autism. 😏
But they can. ✅️
In fact, Autistic people are MORE likely than others, to have ADHD.
So, when the doctors "changed the rules" because they finally understood better how Autistic brains worked--
well, it turns out that a lot MORE people met the diagnostic criteria for an Autism diagnosis.
There is a term for being both ADHD and Autistic. It's called Au-DHD,
but some folks just go with the umbrella term of Neurodivergent, which can also include things like Dyslexia, sensory processing disorder, or Dyspraxia. ☂️
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2) Women have been consistently UNDERstudied and UNDERrepresented in medicine.
👩🏻🔬 👩⚕️ 👩🏫 👩💻 👩🚀
Tests have always been designed around men!!
Now that doctors are BEGGINING to correct for that,
and now that they are starting to look at how Autism presents in women/girls/non-gender-confirming people....
It turns out that there are a lot of Autistic folks out there who are NOT MEN. 🧕 👱♀️👩🦱 👧 🧔♀️👵🙋🏿♀️
Still, unfortunately, about 80-90% of Autistic Women go UNdiagnosed.
So...our numbers are even higher than you realize.
As more women seek and get an Autism diagnosis....I expect Autism numbers to GO UP more!
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*So what should we do with all this information?? 😵💫
Start by recognizing that there is a DIFFERENCE between being Autistic and being severely cognitively disabled.
Some people are both Autistic and severely cognitively disabled.
A lot AREN'T both.
Some are JUST Autistic.
Autism doesn't mean a person necessarily needs intensive 12-24 hour care.
It doesn't mean they want to be cured of a debilitating disease....or that they want your help fundraising for "a cure."
(Particularly because we don't CURE genetic "rarities" like left handedness, having red hair, etc. They are a normal part of human variation)
I'm Autistic. I'm also a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Michigan.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have both said that they qualify as Autistic. I have never seen anybody trying to "cure" them.
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Autistic people exist. We aren't going anywhere. Some of us have complex disabilities in ADDITION to Autism.
Many of us don't.
And while I sympathize deeply with the frustration of caregivers who are under-supported,
as they try to raise children who are BOTH Autistic and ALSO coping with complex disabilities,
like cognitive limitations,
PICA, and Schizophrenia--
We Autistics who CAN communicate for ourselves,
just want you to TRY to actually learn about us, FROM US....
instead of listening to politicians and poorly educated hysterics. 😱
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And we also want you to stop BLAMING AUTISM for absolutely everything. 🫠
For the most part, the problems caregivers are facing, are NOT DUE TO AUTISM ITSELF.
Its another correlation instead of causation, situation.
The problems are because--
❓️❔️❓️❔️❓️❔️❓️❓️
schools are underfunded,
teachers don't know what Autism looks like in kids who can speak and make eye contact
parapros are under-trained and paid too little to stick around and provide consistency for kids prone to anxiety
Pediatricians are NOT well-trained in how to spot Autism and provide early interventions like Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy
People judge/exclude parents whose young Autistic children are experiencing meltdowns in public, leaving them intensely isolated
Our schools demand full-body-listening for long periods of time. That isn't Developmentally appropriate for ANY child. But for a child who learns best while fidgeting, experimenting, having sensory engagement with their environment...it's HORRID. And it leads to "behaviors."
Parents aren't taught what to look for-- in recognizing if their young child is showing signs of sensory processing differences or communication differences
AND BECAUSE
Autistic people are often discriminated against in the workforce...
and so take low income jobs or go without work, making their families reliant on Medicaid, IF THEY CAN EVEN GET IT,
meaning their access to psychological health services and screenings are VERY LIMITED, particularly in places where Medicaid has been cut....
and so they may themselves be Autistic and have a lot of sensory issues that have gone unnoticed until their Autistic child begins TRIGGERING those issues...
because not every Autistic has the same sensory aversions and sometimes we CLASH.
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*And remember. Getting an Autism diagnosis ISN'T EASY.
🚫🙅♀️🚫🙅♀️🚫
When I wanted to get my eldest assessed for Autism, on Medicaid..
it took 18 months to convince the pediatrician to refer us, 🕚
9 months to get a call from a Medicaid funded Community Health agency.... 🕚
and another 6 months of family therapy with a social worker, before they would even REFER US to an assessment, 🕚
Because they wanted to convince themselves I wasn't just parenting him in a way which was causing his differences,
to save themselves the cost of a 3 medical professional board of Autism experts.
We then waited 4 more months for the assessment. And 2 weeks for the results. 🕚
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What are YOUR questions about Autism?
If you are Autistic, perhaps you can answer a question or two.
***Picture of what Autism often looks like at our house. Kids tired after lots of sensory play and laughter.
