Many women who find out they are pregnant for the first time determine to do everything they can to have a healthy baby. They eat the right foods, drink the right drinks. They exercise and take all of the recommended vitamins and supplements. They are careful of what they do and where they go.

However, a new study suggests that expecting moms also need to be aware of taking some common over-the-counter medications – namely acetaminophen.

Acetaminophen, otherwise known as paracetamol, is found to be an ingredient is hundreds of different medicines, both over-the-counter and prescribed by a physician. It’s used for pain and to reduce fevers.

However, use of paracetamol during pregnancy can have negative impacts in the developing baby in more ways than one.

1- Researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, studied the data gathered on 754 pregnant women who had been part of the Swedish Environmental Longitudinal, Mother and Child, Asthma and Allergy study (SELMA). Gleaning through the data, they discovered that 59% of the women took acetaminophen during the early stage of pregnancy. Of those, 10% of their children experienced some form of language delay. Additionally, female children were 6 times more likely to have a delay in language development than female children of women who didn’t take acetaminophen during the early stage of pregnancy.

Other studies have indicted that lower intelligence quotients (IQ) and increased risk of problems communicating were also associated with moms who took acetaminophen.

2- Another study found that pregnant women who took acetaminophen during pregnancy increased the chances of having a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A study in 2014 claimed that a pregnant woman taking acetaminophen had a 30% greater risk of having a child with ADHD.

It was also found that pregnant women who took acetaminophen also had a 37% greater chance of having a child with hyperkinetic disorders. It also found that moms who took acetaminophen during pregnancy who had a child with ADHD, those children were 29% more likely to take some kind of medication to control their ADHD.

The study also found that pregnant moms who took acetaminophen for 6 months or more, had a greater risk of having a child with ADHD.

Other studies on acetaminophen have found that regular use or heavy use can cause liver damage.

If you are pregnant or planning on getting pregnant, talk to your doctor about what pain medication to use. Make sure your doctor is aware of these various studies. Also, learn to read the label of active ingredients in whatever you take. It may not say acetaminophen on the front label, but could still contain it. You owe it to your child to be careful.