Cribsheet
by Emily Oster
Rating: 5.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2026-08-26
It goes down the list of controversial questions in early parenting (ages 0-5), looks at published studies, evaluates the studies, and gives concrete answers (or lack of answers if we don’t know, or “it doesn’t matter” if that’s what the data show). Well sourced and easy to read. Each chapter has a bullet point summary.
Some of my favorite takeaways
- Swaddle to reduce crying and improve sleep. But allow hip movement to avoid hip dysplasia.
- Colic (unexplained crying) is normal and will stop eventually.
- Although breastfeeding has some health benefits early on, they are often overstated. Supposed effects on IQ vanish after controlling for parent IQ and other parental factors.
- Sudden infant death syndrome risk can be reduced by (1) putting infant to sleep on their back, not stomach, (2) not sharing the bed with your infant, (3) keeping the crib clear of blankets, pillows or toys, (4) not drinking or smoking
- Parental leave is beneficial to babies. Stay-at-home parents vs daycare mostly washes out due to the negative effects of lost earnings (so choose the path you want).
- Sleep training (letting the baby “cry it out” and learn to self soothe after waking up) improves infant sleep, improves parent sleep, and doesn’t have negative effects on the baby. It’s just emotionally hard to let your baby cry.
- Feed infants common allergenic foods early to reduce risk of allergies.
- Expect pre-school kids to be sick about half the time in the winter.
- Marital satisfaction drops with kids, but less if kids are planned and parents were happier before. Satisfaction does not fully recover til grandparenthood.