Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool (The ParentData Series Book 2) Kindle Edition

Here's the jist: if you have a higher socio-economic status you have more options. More options = more ability to make decisions. People that make certain decisions typically have the privilege to make those decisions. The kids of privilege to probably have better but outcomes not necessarily BBC their parents make better decisions, but bc those parents' decisions are shaped by their privilege. Most decisions are equally fine or maybe fine or probably fine. There. I saved you $16.

I want to give this 5 stars - there is a real need for more evidence-based parenting advice. As a parent (and an academic scientist), I keep hearing various rules and recommendations and find myself wondering... where do the data for THAT come from? This book is a really accessible guide to navigating the parenting literature with an eye for research methods. The author also does a wonderful job at discussing how sometimes what parents care about is not what research measures. I also found it quite freeing to know that there is not a lot of evidence for a whole host of things. I'm drawn to attachment parenting practices, and I chose to breastfeed- it felt nice to realize I was doing these things because I WANT to, not because I HAVE to because "the evidence says".The big takeaway, then, is "just do you" - with a few caveats: please vaccinate, do not spank your children.My one criticism is toward the parts that were not grounded in data. The postpartum recovery section seemed to be based on personal experience and anecdotes, and repeated some potentially harmful myths (e.g. about how "capacious" one's vagina is after childbirth). These are admittedly more medical questions than the others dealt with in the book, but I would have liked this section too to be more in the spirit of a critical view of existing evidence. Similarly, the how-to section on breastfeeding strayed too much into the realm of personal experience and unscientific sampling of anecdotes.Overall, though, this is a really wonderful book and I plan on getting it for all future baby showers.

One of the most overwhelming things as a parent is making decisions about what will be best for your child and your family. I’ve definitely had my preferences about sleep training, baby feeding, and discipline, but I think every mom doubts herself sometimes and wonders if she’s really doing things the “right” way or if she’s completely screwing up her child.This is why we needed Emily Oster’s book. Her pregnancy book Expecting Better was like a guidebook for me during pregnancy, and although I had to wait 2 years for this parenting book, it was definitely worth the wait. Oster simply outlines the research behind many of the big parenting decisions, including how and what to feed our children, vaccinations, discipline, education, screen time and potty training. Just like in Expecting Better, she doesn’t give advice but simply outlines the research, allowing the reader to use that information to guide their own decision making.As a mom, I’ve loved reading about which decisions don’t really seem to matter much in the long run, and which I should take a little more seriously. This book helps me feel like an informed parent, which allows me to feel more confident as a mother.But my favorite part of this book is that in almost every chapter, Oster doesn’t just discuss how parenting decisions affect the children, but the parents as well. Almost all parenting advice that you read only talks about the children, but what about us? We are also impacted by our parenting choices, and we should consider our own well- being when making any decisions about our family. I hope that this sparks a new trend in parenting advice, where parents are allowed to think about themselves also.

Do not buy this book! An economists wants to tell you what is/isn’t okay as a parent? Follow your instincts and do what’s natural to you. Please don’t leave your babies to cry and breastmilk is what is perfectly made for babies and their developing guts. Research can be very flawed and tweaked to get desired results. Please just love on the babies and forget about this rubbish!

I was impressed by Oster’s first book on pregnancy but honestly this one is pretty slight. Anyone who has spent more than a few hours googling will be familiar with all of the ideas in this. I don’t think I learned anything that surprised me at all. I do like, of course, the basic philosophy which is do what works best for your family, your personhood and your pocket book and don’t let the ridiculous obsessive parents out there tell you what is ‘best’ - apart from abiding by the basic safety precepts most people who don’t live on Mars know about; no soft stuff in the crib, put the baby to sleep on its back, don’t feed it lumpy food too young it will choke, etc.The chapters on things like post child marriage are short, glib, useless. Ideas like maybe chore division matters, maybe having sex matters, maybe talking things through with an objective party helps. I mean, duh!I would only buy this book if you’ve been brainwashed by the culture to feel guilty about everything about your parenting and want some backup to try to feel better.

The book is very interesting and compiles lots of research on all kinds of child rearing questions.I would give a high rating, but the Kindle version is lacking all graphs and lists. The text frequently refers to the graphs, which makes for a very frustrating read!

I haven't read Expecting Better, Emily Oster's previous book, but had high hopes for Cribsheet. Each chapter addresses a different area of parenting "dilemmas", relating to a topic that parents often worry about - like, how to feed baby (breast/bottle), is baby's sleep normal and what to do about it, are vaccines safe, etc etc. Oster's writing is snappy and digestible, but she takes a very cool-headed, neutral approach, trying to look at what the scientific evidence says about each topic rather than present a particular "way of doing things", as many parenting books do. She steers clear from giving recommendations, unless there is overwhelming evidence for benefit and very little risk, like in the vaccines chapter. There are occasional personal anecdotes which liven things up, although sometimes I think she goes overboard a bit on this. The breast/bottle feeding chapter will probably raise quite a few hackles, because Oster's summary of the scientific evidence is very different from what the "orthodoxy" says - she basically notes that there is solid evidence that breastfeeding helps prevent infections, and may have some other benefits too, but many of the longer-term proposed benefits of breastfeeding aren't proven (in her opinion). Therefore, in her view, if you choose to not breastfeed, or switch from breast to formula milk, you aren't choosing a course of action that is depriving your baby of important developmental benefits.I felt some of the chapters, like on development, language, and use of TV/ipad were a bit thin, and not as fleshed out as they could be, but maybe that is because the evidence in these areas really is inconclusive. But it would have been nice to have more to say, or to delve into the data a bit deeper to address additional questions (eg, the often claimed suggestion that kids who grow up with more than one language in the home, have other advantages in their development or learning process).The final chapters, on the relationships between parents, and how the adults adjust to becoming parents, was really interesting because so few books on parenting, ironically, actually address this. I felt this was really useful and prescient, and actually validating in a lot of ways. Being a parent can be very stressful at times, and it's nice to have someone (an academic "someone") recognise there is real objective data that marital relationships do, on average, suffer when two people have kids. But there are ways to help things, and it does get better (mainly).All in all, I feel this is *not* a how-to manual at all, nor some kind of treatise on parenting philosophy (as so many of these books are), but rather a book that really takes the heat out of parenting - it tells you that there are many different ways to be a great and loving parent. Headlines abound in the media telling us how new scientific studies have "proven" that those of us who didn't choose X, or Y, or Z, have ended up failing our kids, but this book tells us that this really isn't so (or isn't proven to be so): it's about understanding your options, and what is right for your family in your circumstances.

Review from a fellow data nerd mum.Emily Oster has made an admirable attempt at exploring published data on an incredible amount of topics to do with baby and young child rearing. She also draws from her own experience (or at least compares her experience and decisions to the data she describes, leading with a few anecdotes).Unfortunately, I find the review suffers from a few issues. First, the build-up of topics is not very logical. For a non-US audience, starting the book off with a discussion around circumcision is a bit of a shocker. I think starting off with the data on the vitamin K shot, prolonged cord clamping, or some other issue directly following child birth, would have been a warmer welcome into the book.Second, in her attempt to cover every possible topic, she touches on most topics a bit lightly, especially as the book progresses, almost as if she ran out of time. If course, on many topics, there isn't much data to begin with, making this quite a challenge (as is clear from the majority of conclusions - most things don't really have conclusive data). I find the downside is that a few rather important issues which do have reasonable scientific data are not discussed at all. For example, I found it surprising that she didn't discuss the risk of high arsenic levels through rice consumption. In fact she appears to advocate giving young babies rice cereal, which is at best unnecessary (it has virtually no nutritional value) and at worst potentially damaging at high levels.Third, somewhat related to the previous point, Emily seems to try to use the data to largely justify her own decisions as a parent. Although she is an economist, she is, being a mum, of course not remotely impartial in writing this book. This makes it difficult to do an unbiased review. Although of course an expert in data, perhaps Emily is not best placed to write this book, as she is not an expert in a child psychology or medicine as such. This may be why she has missed a few important topics to discuss.I do want to congratulate Emily on the enormous effort that has clearly gone into this book. And also on highlighting the need to put an end to mum-shaming which is so damaging and unhelpful to each and every mum. I wholeheartedly agree with her on that one.

This book attempts to do what so few parenting books do, convey parenting advice for new born babies based on medical evidence. The result is an interesting and very useful book, which takes on many parenting myths and shines a light on the data (or not) behind them.The main disadvantage of this book for the UK audience is that child-birth in the USA has very different practises to the good old NHS, and the very first chapter in the book - on circumcision! - seems weird and alien, as do the commentaries on practises in US maternity hospitals. Once past that first chapter, though, the focus moves to universal questions which are handled with a direct reference to the evidence and academic lifetime. A useful book and a breath of fresh air. Someone should write a British version!

I lived Oster's pregnancy book and when I found out she had another I had to read it ASAP before making some decisions. These books have made me way more relaxed about parenting because actually what you learn is that for a lot of things science struggles to find one "correct" way of doing things. As a new parent you come up against so many people who are scarily dogmatic about their way of doing things. But in truth there are pros and cons for most decisions, with a few hard lines that it is reassuring to know about and stick to. Reading these books will give you the facts you need to make your own decisions with confidence.