What can an economist teach us about child rearing?
Professor Emily Auster has analyzed hundreds of studies on child rearing and analyzed the data. Here are the 13 results.
A mother’s daily life can be full of anxiety. They have many questions; Can you drink alcohol while breastfeeding? How long can you breastfeed?
There is so much conflicting advice from doctors, family, friends, books, the internet, and strangers. Hence, mothers are confused as to what to believe and what to act on.
Emily Astor, professor of economics at Brown University in the US, was also confused by the conflicting advice when she was pregnant.
Using the statistical training he had received, he decided to review the medical literature himself. Through this she gathered evidence for her first book, Expecting Better, about do’s and don’ts during pregnancy.
She also covers this methodology in Cribsheet, a recent book on data driven parenting.
After analyzing hundreds of studies, let’s take a look at her top tips for mothers to be.
01. Breastfeeding is not a panacea
Fewer allergies, inflammations, stomach upsets and ear infections can be avoided with good baby care, but there is no data to show that it provides long term benefits. It does not mean that breastfed babies are smarter or face lower risks of obesity, cancer and diabetes. says Astor.
However, breastfeeding does reduce a mother’s risk of some types of breast cancer. Studies in many different locations have shown that breastfeeding can reduce the risk of breast cancer by about 20% to 30%.
02. You can drink a little alcohol while breastfeeding
When you drink alcohol, the amount of alcohol in your blood is the same as the amount of alcohol in the milk, says Oster after his studies.
The baby eats the mother’s milk. It doesn’t drink the alcohol directly. So the amount of alcohol the baby gets is very low. Drinking too much alcohol is never good, so don’t worry about a glass of wine or a beer.
If you’re very careful not to expose your baby to alcohol, you should breastfeed two hours after the alcohol has worn off. If you’ve had two drinks, you should breastfeed four hours later, Auster advises.
03. Antidepressant
There is no evidence that any antidepressants have adverse effects on breastfed infants.
Postpartum depression is serious and treatment is very important.
It is important to consult your doctor for any health condition.
04. Must stay in same room with parents
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that newborns stay in their parents’ room for at least six months at one year of age to prevent sudden infant death syndrome.
But in the first few months, Auster suggests, the benefits of having a baby in the same room as a parent fade away.
If you have to share a room with your baby, you can share. The data says it’s good for the parents to have the baby in the room in the beginning. But keeping the baby in their room for a year and having to watch over the baby and make sacrifices is not beneficial in the long run. It’s not a good policy either. Astor reports.
05. Is it safe for children to sleep on the sofa with an adult?
All the studies on sleeping positions tell us one thing in particular. Sleeping with an adult on a sofa has a 20 to 60 times greater risk of infant mortality than the baseline. Don’t do it, it said.
06.Should the baby be swaddled?
Yes. Swaddle helps reduce crying and help baby sleep better in the early months. It’s important to wrap your baby so that they can move their legs and hips, says Auster.
07. When can you have sex after giving birth?
There is no such thing as a fixed period of time after giving birth.
A generally accepted rule of thumb is to not have sex for six months after giving birth and after being checked by a doctor.
This is often cited as evidence. But it’s just a matter of time, says Auster.
After giving birth, there is no such thing as waiting time to resume sex. If it’s surgery, it’s important to wait until the wound is completely healed.
Your doctor will check for this at your first postpartum checkup (around six months). But you can tell yourself that six months ago you were completely cured, says Auster.
08. Vaccinations: Must be given
Childhood vaccination is very safe for your children and others.
09. Cry it out and sleep training works.
After analyzing hundreds of parenting studies, Auster concluded, Clearly, cry it out and sleep training methods are effective and improve the mother’s mental health. They don’t harm the baby. There’s no need to feel guilty about it.
Sleep training may also be beneficial in reducing maternal depression. Sleep training methods improve the mental health of parenting, resulting in less depression. Greater marital satisfaction. Reduced parenting stress.
10.To be at home or to be away?
Children benefit from mothers taking maternity leave, but there is no evidence that mothers staying at home have good or bad effects on children, says Auster.
11. Day care home children are not very affectionate with their mothers
The quality of parenting is what matters here. Time spent in a day care home makes no difference to the child’s attachment to the mother.
12. Do children learn from television?
Children under the age of two cannot learn much from television.
Three to five year olds can learn things like words from certain TV shows, says Auster.
Television viewing does not affect test scores. There is good evidence that television viewing does not affect test scores, especially at a very young age. However, data on smart devices and television viewing time are not yet available, Auster said.
13. Interactive reading with the child is best.
Rather than reading a book to children, ask general questions: Where do you think that bird’s mother is? Asking questions like