CRIBSHEET by Emily Oster ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Data can’t tell you everything, but it can sure make you feel better. That’s what I learned from reading this evidence-based dive into the things that make you say ‘what the hell do I do?’ as you suddenly find a baby in your hands and every decision feels like it will effect their entire life trajectory, starting with if you should breastfeed or not. I feel almost triggered just thinking about it again.

The second you leave the hospital (and who are we kidding, probably your entire life before that), there are a billion voices telling you what is better and what is dangerous and what is ethical and what your parents did and what NEVER to do and what to do only some of the time and what people who do ANY of those things have wrong, and you’ll never know which way is right until you try. And then there’s this book with numbers and research to at least give you an idea what the math says. Math has a funny of generally being right, and in this case, comforting.

But not always! Often, you gotta put the math in the blender with all the other noise in your head and dump it out so you can follow your gut. Because you know your kid better than anyone. This book is well aware of that, so there’s no finger-pointing or grandstanding. It wants you to have the best information that science can provide so you can be the best parent you can be, however that looks for you, cloth-diaper or not.

All the major topics are covered. Breastfeeding. Screen time. Sleep-training. First words, first steps. Daycares, preschools. Potty training. Every lovely conundrum that comes from raising a tiny human. I read the chapters as life happened, finishing now that our daughter is two and suddenly I wish there were more chapters to read and toddler issues to tackle. At least I found the reassurance and guidance I was looking for with this, even if many of the chapters ended with a bit of a shrug and a “you can figure it out from there”. Like we ever had a choice.