What is Cribsheet about?

Cribsheet is Emily Oster's 2019 data-driven guide to parenting from birth to preschool. She reviews the research on breastfeeding, sleep training, bed-sharing, vaccines, daycare, potty training, screens and discipline, explains which studies are reliable, and helps parents make the choice that fits their family.

What does Cribsheet say about breastfeeding?

Oster finds that the most reliable studies, which compare siblings, show some short-term benefits such as fewer digestive infections but no clear long-term effect on IQ or obesity. Her conclusion is that breastfeeding is good if it works for you and formula is a good option if it does not.

Does Cribsheet support sleep training?

Oster finds no evidence of long-term harm from sleep training, including methods that let a baby cry, and evidence that it improves sleep for babies and parents. Whether to do it is left to the family.

Is Cribsheet the same as Expecting Better?

No. Expecting Better (2013) covers pregnancy. Cribsheet (2019) picks up at birth and runs through the preschool years, using the same data-first method.

What does Emily Oster say about screen time for toddlers?

In Cribsheet she finds screens do not help children learn before about age 3 and the evidence after that is limited. She also counts the value of a break for a tired parent as part of the decision.

Cribsheet – WISE Score & Parent Review | Screenwise

Cribsheet

Name: Screenwise
Author: Screenwise

book2019Parenting, Baby and Toddler Care

91%

WISE Score

An economist sorts the strong baby studies from the weak ones, from breastfeeding to potty training, then lets you decide.

Cribsheet

book

2019, Parenting, Baby and Toddler Care

91%

WISE Score

An economist sorts the strong baby studies from the weak ones, from breastfeeding to potty training, then lets you decide.

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Where to Read

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Screenwise Verdict

Cribsheet is the book for new parents who want the evidence, not another opinion. Emily Oster, an economist at Brown, goes through the research on breastfeeding, sleep training, vaccines, daycare, potty training, screens and more, and tells you which studies can be trusted and what they say.

Much of the news is calming: breastfeeding's long-term benefits are smaller than the posters claim, sleep training does no lasting harm, and milestone ranges are wide. Where the data is clear, as with vaccines and early peanut exposure, she says so.

Each chapter ends with a short Bottom Line, so it works as a reference you dip into at 2 a.m. Her bed-sharing and breastfeeding chapters are softer than the American Academy of Pediatrics, so weigh those two with your pediatrician.

In our guide to Parenting Books

The best books about raising kids with screens are mostly about raising kids.

Age Fit

A book for parents, from the hospital through about age 4 to 5. Most useful for expecting parents and parents of babies and toddlers; the later chapters on discipline, preschool and family size reach into the preschool years.

WISE Breakdown

Wholesome

Calm and judgment-free: the book exists to take guilt out of early parenting and to make parents less critical of families who choose differently.

Imaginative

A fresh frame for a crowded shelf: baby decisions treated as an economist would treat any choice, with costs, benefits and a family-sized second step. The format repeats chapter to chapter, which keeps it more reference than story.

Safe

Nothing concerning for an adult reader. Its bed-sharing and breastfeeding conclusions are softer than American Academy of Pediatrics guidance, so parents should weigh those chapters with their pediatrician.

Enriching

Teaches parents how to tell a strong study from a weak one, then applies that to two dozen real decisions. Few parenting books leave the reader better at judging the next headline.

Parent Info

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Why It Might Be Great

Shows its work. Oster explains why sibling studies beat simple comparisons, so you learn to judge the next scary headline yourself.
Covers the decisions that eat the first three years: feeding, sleep, childcare, vaccines, allergens, potty training, screens and discipline.
Every chapter ends with a short Bottom Line, which makes it easy to use as a reference.
Takes the guilt out of choices like formula or daycare, and makes it easier to stop judging families who choose differently.
A 4.6-star average from more than 7,000 Amazon ratings.

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What to Watch For

Her bed-sharing conclusion (a small added risk for sober, non-smoking parents) is looser than the American Academy of Pediatrics, which does not recommend bed-sharing. Read her chapter and the AAP's safe-sleep guidance together, and ask your pediatrician.
The AAP also criticized the book for underselling breastfeeding. If breastfeeding matters to you, a lactation consultant can help with the practical side the book doesn't cover.
Data-heavy chapters can feel dry if you want stories. Skip to the Bottom Line boxes and go back for detail on the decisions you are stuck on.
The data runs to about 2019. For newer studies on the same questions, Oster updates many topics at ParentData.

Conversation Starters

"What do you think you were like as a baby?"
"What is something you can do now that you could not do last year?"
"If you could choose one thing we do every day, what would it be?"

Deep Dive

An economist read the baby studies so you can stop googling at 3 a.m.

Emily Oster teaches economics at Brown University. When her first child, Penelope, arrived, she did what she had done during the pregnancy: she went to the research behind each piece of advice and asked how good it was. Cribsheet is the result, a chapter-by-chapter tour of the decisions parents face from the hospital room to preschool. "What I do in the book is actually try to comb through these studies and figure out which of them are giving us the best information," she told NPR in 2019, "so then you can make these choices having the best information, not just the first thing that comes up when you Google it at 3 o'clock in the morning."

Emily Oster, an economist with short brown hair in a dark sleeveless top, sitting in a pale gray room Emily Oster, professor of economics at Brown and founder of ParentData. Photo from parentdata.org.

Each chapter grades the evidence, then hands the choice back to you

The method is the same every time. Oster lays out the studies, explains which ones can tell cause from coincidence, and ends with a short "Bottom Line" box. Then she says plainly that the data is only half the decision. The other half is what works for your family: your sleep, your job, your budget, your other kids.

Some of what she found:

Breastfeeding helps less than the posters say. The best studies, the ones that compare siblings, find small short-term benefits (fewer digestive infections, for example) and no clear effect on IQ or obesity. Formula is a good option.
Vaccines are a yes. On this one the data is clear, and she says so.
Early peanut exposure probably lowers allergy risk. This was one of the clearest results in the book.
Sleep training does not harm kids. The studies she reviews find no long-term damage from letting a baby cry for a while, and better sleep for parents.
Potty training before about 27 months mostly adds months, not results. Start at 27 or 28 months and most kids finish near age 3, after about ten months of effort; start at 3 and it usually takes under six months.
Screens are not useful for learning before about age 3, and after that the data is thin. She also counts the parent's side: an hour of TV that gives a tired parent a break has a value too.

The one chapter pediatricians push back on

Oster's sleep chapter takes the usual line on babies on their backs and on a bare crib. On bed-sharing she is more relaxed than the American Academy of Pediatrics: she finds the safest place for a baby is not the parents' bed, but that for sober, non-smoking parents on a firm mattress with few covers the extra risk is small. The AAP does not recommend bed-sharing at any point, and it also criticized the book for underselling breastfeeding. If you are weighing either question, read her chapter and the AAP's safe-sleep guidance side by side, and talk it through with your pediatrician.

Watch her explain it

Oster on Good Morning America the week Cribsheet came out:

Read it with

Her first book, Expecting Better, applies the same method to pregnancy. For screens in the toddler years, see screen time for toddlers and preschoolers. And when the questions turn from data to tantrums, Good Inside and The Whole-Brain Child pick up where Cribsheet leaves off.

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