When President Trump warned that pregnant women and children should avoid taking Tylenol, the wellness industry was ready to pounce.
“Your choices are NOT take mainstream drugs or suffer. There are alternatives,” wrote Kate Tietje, co-founder of the homeopathic products company Earthley Wellness, on Facebook soon after Trump’s Sept. 22 announcement. The company’s “Feel Better Fast” tincture promises to address fevers and headaches with ingredients including echinacea and fennel seed.
Influencers like Holistic Heidi and Organic Minded Mom posted discount codes to Dr. Green Life Organics and other herbal alternatives, while Ali Miller RD and Rowe Casa Organics pointed followers to their own products. “Wellness influencers are well-practiced” at capitalizing on fear, “even if that’s fear they helped manufacture,” creator and wellness debunker Mallory DeMille said in an Instagram post rounding up the Tylenol response.
The fanfare over Tylenol alternatives isn’t limited to herbal remedies. KinderFarms, a health product company co-founded by actress Jessica Biel, launched an acetaminophen medication without dyes or artificial sweeteners last week. (It recalled an earlier version of the product in 2023 over concerns about the acetaminophen’s instability, warning that it could lead to problems like nausea and jaundice.) The KinderFarms homepage is currently dominated by the message “Looking for an alternative to Children’s Tylenol?”, written in large, bold type. Genexa, an Atlanta-based firm that bills itself as “the first clean medicine company,” also offers an acetaminophen product without artificial additives aimed at kids, though the company kept a low profile in the aftermath of the Tylenol news.
The vast majority of medical experts say there’s insufficient evidence to support the Trump administration’s claims of an association between autism and the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during pregnancy. And the American Academy of Pediatrics says it’s safe for kids in appropriate amounts. But Americans are increasingly wary of traditional drugs and pharmaceutical companies — a frustration that’s among the most frequent talking points of the Make America Healthy Again movement, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that Americans have been “mass-poisoned by Big Pharma and Big Food.” Parents are seeking out products advertised as natural, organic, or clean alternatives, leading to new growth opportunities in the over-the-counter pediatric market, according to market research firm Lucintel.
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