One evening in 2019, when I was a pediatrics resident, I admitted a two-month-old to the hospital for observation after a minor surgery. I explained to the baby’s mother that I planned to order acetaminophen—commonly sold over the counter as Tylenol—every six hours, because the baby had an obvious source of pain. If pain still kept the baby from eating, sleeping, or calming down, the mother could ask for an opioid. I was just leaving the room when the mother stopped me to ask about the acetaminophen.

“Doesn’t it cause autism?” she said.

“I’m not familiar with any research linking Tylenol to autism,” I told her. “But I’ll look into it and get back to you.” In the meantime, we agreed to use both the acetaminophen and the opioid as needed, instead of administering them on a schedule.

When

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