PDF Cribsheet A DataDriven Guide to Better More Relaxed Parenting from Birth to Preschool Emily Oster 9780525559252 Books

Product details Hardcover 352 pages Publisher Penguin Press (April 23, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0525559256

Cribsheet A DataDriven Guide to Better More Relaxed Parenting from Birth to Preschool Emily Oster 9780525559252 Books Reviews

• I love everything about it, so practical and useful with expert references. It's a wonderful antidote to the anxious shame based focus so much parenting advice seems to employ in America. Easily readable, yet scientific enough for this academic mother to feel enriched by it. My only criticisms are that I think the book Precious Little Sleep should have been mentioned in the sleep area, and perhaps she should have taken a moment to address the Rock N' Play issues currently all over the news when mentioning that product.
• I'm an economics student and a new parent and this book provides exactly what you expect out a professor from a good university - data driven decision making. When we started our journey as parents, we were bombarded with a ton of advice and opinions from other parents and even practicing nurses, with no real scientific basis for anything. I'll give you an example. In the hospital where our child was born, a nurse came and yelled at us for letting our child suck on a pacifier. We were traumatized. Fortunately, our pediatrician stopped by and answered all our questions and educated us about "Nipple Confusion". If we had this book earlier, I would have been much more calm when the uninformed nurse wreaked havoc.
  
  This book does a prefect job of picking some of those most common "opinions" (like "nipple confusion") and analyzes them with hard data and science.
  
  I'm really happy Emily wrote this book. If you believe in science and data, this book will make your childcare journey much more pleasant.
• 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.
• I pre-ordered this book after a friend gave me a copy of Expecting Better, and I was not disappointed. This is a valuable resource for parents, covering many of the big issues like breastfeeding, cosleeping, etc. There are a number of valuable charts to bookmark for future reference (like on weight loss after birth, and language development to pick a couple of examples). Also it's an enjoyable read, interspersing personal anecdote with data analysis.
  
  As in Expecting Better, Cribsheet discusses one topic at a time, summarizing the available research and suggesting some factors to consider in personal decision making. It isn't about telling you what you should do, more of a guide to how to go about making your decisions. Although it does generally explain things like percentiles, study design, etc, people with at least a little background and interest in statistics/research methods may enjoy it more, but I don't think it ever gets too technical. Discussions about pregnancy and parenting are far too commonly dominated by conflicting assertions backed up with an unholy amalgam of anecdotes, judgement, pseudoscience, and cherry picking. A book like this, which tells the reader what we actually know (and what we actually don't) hopefully helps parents to feel confident making informed decisions based on what's right for their family.
• This book is excellent. I loved it. I’d put it on my recommended reading list for new parents who want to know what the research really says about the first three years of parenting, from the perspective of a data-driven economist.
  
  The book takes a unique approach by combining an economist toolkit for reviewing and evaluating research with practical, experience-driven tips and advice on the first three years of parenting.
  
  The book tackles a number of critical issues that often trouble and confuse new parents. We’ve all heard so much “conventional wisdom” in both directions on many issues that we don’t know what to think. Oster comes to the rescue by providing an empirical evaluation of the research on each topic.
  
  For each topic, Oster presents (1) what published research is out there, (2) a methodological evaluation of that research, (3) the core takeaways from the research, and (4) how to think about the findings in the context of other practical considerations of being a parent.
  
  Overall, the book is a brilliant yet accessible synthesis of empirical research, parenting tips, real-life experiences, and humor that any parent can appreciate and learn from. I loved it and finished it within a few hours of receiving it earlier this week. Highly recommended!
  
  DeForest (Economist)
  Boston, Massachusetts