Sebastian: You have to make these choices with limited information. It's just an important aspect of life that I'm increasingly interested in. A lot of things we want data on, we don't have and we just have to deal with that. There's a beautiful story down the book about your daughter's reaction to your son struggling to fall asleep.
Economist and author Emily Oster of Brown University talks about her book Cribsheet with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Oster explores what the data and evidence can tell us about parenting in areas such as breastfeeding, sleep habits, discipline, vaccination, and food allergies. Oster often finds that commonly held views on some of these topics are not well supported by the evidence while on others, the evidence appears decisive. Oster thoughtfully explores the challenges of using empirical work and balances our sometimes ignorance with common sense.