From the author of Expecting Better, The Family Firm, and The Unexpected an economist’s guide to the early years of parenting.
“Both refreshing and useful. With so many parenting theories driving us all a bit batty, this is the type of book that we need to help calm things down.” —LA Times
“The book is jampacked with information, but it’s also a delightful read because Oster is such a good writer.” —NPR
With Expecting Better, award-winning economist Emily Oster spotted a need in the pregnancy market for advice that gave women the information they needed to make the best decision for their own pregnancies. By digging into the data, Oster found that much of the conventional pregnancy wisdom was wrong. In Cribsheet, she now tackles an even greater challenge: decision-making in the early years of parenting.
As any new parent knows, there is an abundance of often-conflicting advice hurled at you from doctors, family, friends, and strangers on the internet. From the earliest days, parents get the message that they must make certain choices around feeding, sleep, and schedule or all will be lost. There’s a rule—or three—for everything. But the benefits of these choices can be overstated, and the trade-offs can be profound. How do you make your own best decision?
Armed with the data, Oster finds that the conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold up. She debunks myths around breastfeeding (not a panacea), sleep training (not so bad!), potty training (wait until they’re ready or possibly bribe with M&Ms), language acquisition (early talkers aren’t necessarily geniuses), and many other topics. She also shows parents how to think through freighted questions like if and how to go back to work, how to think about toddler discipline, and how to have a relationship and parent at the same time.
Economics is the science of decision-making, and Cribsheet is a thinking parent’s guide to the chaos and frequent misinformation of the early years. Emily Oster is a trained expert—and mom of two—who can empower us to make better, less fraught decisions—and stay sane in the years before preschool.
Marouf –
Can’t recommend this enough. Easy read, great info
Mary –
Dr Oster reviews current published data and walks you through her analysis with pointers on decision making. So useful for busy professionals who are looking for an unbiased guidance on parenting choices.
You will still need additional books on bringing baby home as this series mostly addresses controversial topics and topics that have evolved or changed greatly over the past 30-40 years (since we were born).
Ana Roberts –
Ben scritto e di facile lettura. Tutti i capitoli, divisi per tema, sono supportati da statistiche e ricerche rendendolo non fazioso.
Adi –
I loved this book in how it framed things, gave examples, and made everything a lot more clear when it comes to a myriad of issues that parents face.
Solanacea –
I loved!! I recomend to all my friends
This book fare perfect for new parents!
Easy to understand And read!!
federico toccacieli –
– Buena información recolectada y contrastada
– Bueno organización
– Sentido del humor
– Coloca un buen contexto para tomar decisiones
Pena que todavía no esté en castellano
Clara –
I am so glad this was the first pregnancy/baby book we have decided to read. It gives great insights about so many topics and guides you towards the most reliable studies so you can make the choices that work best for you. It also gives you great perspective when you read other books.
AnnaVP –
This is a perfect gift for the ambitious and/or neurotic parent-to-be. It’s more data-oriented than your average parenting book, and it is an engaging and thoughtful read.
Be mindful of the personality of the recipient before sending this out unsolicited, but if you’re close to an expecting parent who is either super corporate or very analytical, they’re likely to appreciate it.
jb –
As physician scientists we are both very data-driven, and really wanted to like this book. It is mostly okay, 60% of the content is common sense (like the vaccination section) and stuff we already knew, 30% of it basically boils down to “you can do things either way and there’s no tangible benefit or harm”. A few chapters were on contentious subjects where every parent has a different opinion (like sleep training – we would never use the cry it out method and mainly think this sleep training business is just a big racket).
The breastfeeding section is what we disliked the most. It’s a touchy subject for many women, and a lot of mothers feel judged and/or guilty (sometimes rightly) about their decision to breastfeed or not, and the anxiety surrounding breastfeeding doubles when going back to work and pumping gets involved. It’s perhaps due to this reason that the author gets really defensive in this chapter, and the advice is based more on personal experience and not really evidence-based. For instance, she talks about how difficult pumping is, and her bottom line is “pumping sucks” – that’s not paraphrased, it’s literally what’s written in the end of chapter summary. You can imagine that it will potentially make the reader anxious about pumping too, if they’re a first time mom. What she should’ve said is “pumping sucks – for me”. There, fixed that for you. There are a few more things in the book that are defensively written and not really data-driven, though I’m having trouble recalling exactly what they were.
I do identify with how the author and her husband kept records of everything like feedings and diapers and growth charts, and made graphs with the outputs and analyzed them. It’s the sort of thing we like to do as parents as well. Overall, it’s a fresh perspective. A lot of childcare books, particularly the older ones, have a paternalistic, this-is-how-it’s-always-been type angle, as opposed to scientific basis. However; like I said, this book’s impact is marred by the author trying several times to pass of her personal experiences as evidence-based.
Our personal decision was to stick to a up-to-date reference book written by physicians (the AAP’s Caring for your newborn and young child), though this book was definitely an interesting read.
Margot MacGill –
Emily Oster is a great author and I love her research based findings around childcare and postpartum parenting. Reading her work has definitely helped to keep a level head through first time parenting. It has also really helped us discuss parenting strategies/ daycare preferences in enough time to do proper planning.
Carioca –
Highly recommend for new of future parents,
Jonathan Marks –
I read expecting better and loved the book, so I was ready for my next steps of reading books about what to expect after the baby is born. I had some books gifted to me that I started reading and they would just make me stressed and overwhelmed. So I knew I should give this one a try. This book is the BEST. Emily feels like a best friend and therapist at the same time, giving helpful data-based answers without exaggerating, making you feel stupid or just giving you advice without any basis for it. I love that. It’s so easy to read, it makes me feel supported as opposed to stressed, and makes me feel better equipped to become a mother soon. I love the chapter that talks about post birth effects on the mother (as those are not talked about enough). Thank you! I highly recommend.
Jonathan Marks –
I really enjoyed Emily Oster’s book on pregnancy so I was really excited to read this book. So far I have felt like this book was a bit more opinion based than her other one. I am more of a numbers girl, so I wish it had held with her previous data driven takes. Overall it is solid and helpful for new parents like myself!