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Random House Books for Young Readers

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

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The New York Times bestseller 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. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books


Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 21, 2020


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 352 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525559272


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 76


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 0.76 x 8.44 inches


Book 2 of 4 ‏ : ‎ The ParentData


Best Sellers Rank: #1,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #5 in Pregnancy & Childbirth (Books) #9 in Children & Adolescent's Health #16 in Business Decision Making


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Recommend
Format: Paperback
I enjoyed this book. It’s written in a fun easy to read format. I feel like it made me think about how things I really hadn’t considered yet. I loved all the data. Maybe not the most thorough but very good. I’d recommend
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2026 by ...
    • Expecting Better
Format: Hardcover
Emily Oster uses the same data-centered approach in Cribsheet that she did in Expecting Better. (You can read my review of that here.) That’s why I loved Expecting Better so I knew I’d love Cribsheet too. Oster wrote Expecting Better after she had her first child and drew on her own experience of pregnancy for that book. She would present the data and explain why she made the choice she did but was never judgmental about it. The choice was ultimately left up to the reader. Cribsheet is the same, only Oster wrote it after the birth of her second child. She knows from personal experience that all children are different and what works for one may not work for another – even if they have the same parents. Cribsheet covers the most heated topics related to a baby’s first year – sleep training, breast vs. bottle, vaccinations, working vs. staying home, etc. The section on toddlers includes walking, talking, potty training, discipline, education and more. Like in Expecting Better, she presents the various approaches to each topic and then her analysis of the available data, without judgment. My oldest child is 16 years old and my youngest is 18 months old. A lot has changed in 16 years. One example is that it’s now recommended that children sleep in the parents’ bedroom for their first year. This blew me away! My older kids were in their own room within weeks of birth and this was pretty much standard at the time. After reading Oster’s section on sleep, I understood why the recommendation had been put into place and was able to decide how long I thought it was appropriate for my new baby to sleep in my bedroom given the available data. I hope that Oster continues to write books as her children grow. I’ll be first in line for all of them! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2021 by Rachel McElhany
    • Much needed data-driven guide to parenting
Format: Hardcover
I want to give this 5 stars - there is a real need for more evidence-based parenting advice. As a parent (and an academic scientist), I keep hearing various rules and recommendations and find myself wondering... where do the data for THAT come from? This book is a really accessible guide to navigating the parenting literature with an eye for research methods. The author also does a wonderful job at discussing how sometimes what parents care about is not what research measures. I also found it quite freeing to know that there is not a lot of evidence for a whole host of things. I'm drawn to attachment parenting practices, and I chose to breastfeed- it felt nice to realize I was doing these things because I WANT to, not because I HAVE to because "the evidence says". The big takeaway, then, is "just do you" - with a few caveats: please vaccinate, do not spank your children. My one criticism is toward the parts that were not grounded in data. The postpartum recovery section seemed to be based on personal experience and anecdotes, and repeated some potentially harmful myths (e.g. about how "capacious" one's vagina is after childbirth). These are admittedly more medical questions than the others dealt with in the book, but I would have liked this section too to be more in the spirit of a critical view of existing evidence. Similarly, the how-to section on breastfeeding strayed too much into the realm of personal experience and unscientific sampling of anecdotes. Overall, though, this is a really wonderful book and I plan on getting it for all future baby showers. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2019 by Amazon Customer
    • LOVE
Format: Paperback
I love this book and Expecting Better! I genuinely feel like I've learned so much and been able to develop opinions on topics that would have otherwise taken me days to research and try to parse information together. I love the way Emily writes! I think this book is extremely useful for all expecting parents and will be recommending it to friends and family in the future. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2025 by Meghan Adams
    • Becoming an Informed, Confident Mother
Format: Kindle
One of the most overwhelming things as a parent is making decisions about what will be best for your child and your family. I’ve definitely had my preferences about sleep training, baby feeding, and discipline, but I think every mom doubts herself sometimes and wonders if she’s really doing things the “right” way or if she’s completely screwing up her child. This is why we needed Emily Oster’s book. Her pregnancy book Expecting Better was like a guidebook for me during pregnancy, and although I had to wait 2 years for this parenting book, it was definitely worth the wait. Oster simply outlines the research behind many of the big parenting decisions, including how and what to feed our children, vaccinations, discipline, education, screen time and potty training. Just like in Expecting Better, she doesn’t give advice but simply outlines the research, allowing the reader to use that information to guide their own decision making. As a mom, I’ve loved reading about which decisions don’t really seem to matter much in the long run, and which I should take a little more seriously. This book helps me feel like an informed parent, which allows me to feel more confident as a mother. But my favorite part of this book is that in almost every chapter, Oster doesn’t just discuss how parenting decisions affect the children, but the parents as well. Almost all parenting advice that you read only talks about the children, but what about us? We are also impacted by our parenting choices, and we should consider our own well- being when making any decisions about our family. I hope that this sparks a new trend in parenting advice, where parents are allowed to think about themselves also. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2019 by Alana
    • Piece of Mind
Format: Hardcover
I really enjoyed Emily Oster's first book, Expecting Better. I read it throughout my pregnancy, and found that it was immensely helpful in allowing me piece of mind when I was worried about all of the things that you worry about while being pregnant, which is pretty much every single thing. I was excited about this book, and waited until after I had the baby to read it - since by the description it deals with all the things that happen after the delivery. I didn't start reading it until my child was three months old, and I really wish I had read it sooner - especially for all the after labor/delivery recovery information. This piece of it would have been so helpful to me during the first six weeks postpartum. I've actually purchased this for two of my friends who are currently pregnant as additions to their baby shower gifts. I always feel better armed with more information. This book gives you all the information that you need to take away a lot of the mommy guilt that you may have that people inflict upon you with baseless information. (e.g., breastfeeding). Oster makes no judgments, but presents that data - and also explains where there are holes in data. Really fantastic book - oh, and I definitely also purchased the audio-book version, because who has time to read a book when you have an infant? If you are that person, please let me know your secret. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2019 by Brian
    • THE BEST
Format: Paperback
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. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2023 by AnnaVP
    • Interesting read, whether it’s data driven or not remains to be decided
Format: Hardcover
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. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2020 by Solanacea

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