(Br J Anaesth. 2018;121:406–416)Neonatal anesthesia-induced abnormalities and their mechanisms are poorly understood, even in exposed animals. Some studies have shown that rats, especially male rats, develop behavioral deficiencies and exacerbated hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal responses to stress when exposed as neonates to anesthetic. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that these deleterious effects could be carried into the next generation via epigenetic mechanisms (noncoding RNAs, DNA methylation). There is a pressing need for further research, in order to establish safety guidelines for anesthesia in children, The authors of the present study exposed neonatal rats to sevoflurane and evaluated their progeny for inherited behavioral and molecular alterations.