Data-Driven Parenting with Emily Oster

Emily Oster tells it like it is. The Professor of Economics at Brown University is known for her books that take a data-driven approach to pregnancy and parenting. Wondering what’s behind the sushi rule during pregnancy or how much coffee you’re allowed to drink? Curious about co-sleeping? Potty Training? Emily provides the data and analysis that drive these well-known rules. 

Emily’s first book, Expecting Better, provides information to help women make their own well-informed decisions throughout pregnancy. She then wrote Cribsheet, a similarly data-driven book to help new parents navigate all of the conflicting information about how to breastfeed, sleep-train, and potty training. 

Her most recent book, The Family Firm, provides a framework for data-driven parents to think about the key issues of the elementary years: school, health, extracurricular activities, and more. 

In this week’s episode, Sonya and Emily talked about many topics of interest in early childhood development.

Key Takeaways

• Hierarchy of types of research studies
• Confusion around data reporting
• Do childhood vaccines cause Autism
• Does sleep training work and is it beneficial
• How having children impacts marital satisfaction
• What's best: nanny vs. daycare vs. stay at home parent
• Data around TV watching and learning for kids under 5
• Potty training
• Alcohol and breastfeeding and pregnancy