For how we live.
Children reach words at different ages, and many late talkers catch up. But a wait-and-see approach can miss those who need help, so certain milestones and warning signs are worth acting on early.
The US banned Red No. 3 in 2025 on a rat-specific cancer finding, not human data. The separate question — whether dyes affect children's behaviour — has better, and more unsettling, evidence.
Iron shortfall is the leading cause of anaemia in young children and is linked to poorer development. Yet the evidence that screening symptom-free toddlers or routinely supplementing them helps their brains is thin.
The largest study, comparing siblings to strip out family confounding, found no link between paracetamol in pregnancy and autism or ADHD. Guidelines still call it the preferred painkiller when one is needed.
Paediatric bodies advise formal autism screening at 18 and 24 months; a US task force found the evidence for universal screening merely insufficient, not against it. Large studies find no link to vaccines.
A Norwegian study of 204,663 children found no raised risk of autism or most neurodevelopmental disorders after maternal COVID in pregnancy — with one exception in the early pandemic.