Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool (The ParentData Series) Paperback – April 21, 2020

Definitely one of the best books I have read.

Loved the discussion on the data; I feel empowered to make my own decisions instead of blindly following guidelines. Also a huge stress reliever to find out about how much things really matter or don't matter

It is liberating to have data presenting the options instead of gossip, magic or cultural misleading opinions all around you.

This was recommended to me by my cousin and I gifted it to my friend who is going through her first pregnancy journey. Very informative she loved it

Love this book for transparency about what data shows for common parental decisions but also appreciate the humor associated with decisions where data isn’t sufficient. Great read!

As a first-time mom, this book was incredible. I learned so many valuable insights into motherhood and how to maneuver through different milestones and changes with your baby/toddler. I will definitely be gifting this to other mom friends and recommend it for you too!

Are you tired of garbage science headlines in the news and anecdotal evidence of what will make your baby smarter? Afraid that someone is going to shame you for sleeping in the same bed as your baby? Or for not sleeping in the same room? Besides summarizing the best research on almost every tough decision you'll judge yourself on, Dr. Oster tells you that you don't have to follow the recommendations. Arm yourself with the facts and the numbers. Then make the decisions for yourself taking into account your own mental health. When someone calls you a terrible mother on Facebook, you can relax knowing that you're the one who took into account the data and that idiot on Facebook probably gets their parenting recommendations from Tucker Carlson.The book isn't all numbers and cold calculations, though. Especially in this second book, Dr. Oster throws in a lot of anecdotes about how she and those she talked to for the book didn't follow some of the recommendations. Sometimes the data says there's a 1 in 10,000 increase in the chance of death, but they felt like that was a risk they were willing to take because they would be careful. Some risks, as Dr. Oster points out, are probably lower than your chances of dying in a car accident on the way to the hospital...meaning don't worry about them. But do drive carefully to the hospital. It's not like the movies. You can take it easy.Surprisingly, more than any other book, this one gave me the best impressions of how things were not going to go as planned. She mostly pulls from her own experiences here, and I was surprised how many things went wrong and how many of the normal childbirth and baby care events were very difficult for her and her husband. The stories have more of an impact than just numbers. This is hard even for the best prepared among us.

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.