I’m not sure you’re following (or you’re being purposefully obtuse). Parents aren’t removing the carrier from the car just to lug around. They are clicking it into the stroller, or perhaps putting it into a shopping cart or - in a restaurant - presumably putting the carrier in one of those slings designed to hold…

It is wild how much hospital policies vary not only state to state but county to county, and terrifying to think about how difficult it can be to find out exactly what those policies are. I feel very lucky to work in Portland. I attended my 75th birth as a doula yesterday and I have only witnessed one episiotomy and…

you should skip dinner instead... You don’t need any of that energy just to sleep. breakfast will charge you for the day, lunch will top you up.

Oh my gods! I used to be a massage therapist. I worked on a lot of feet. You know who’s feet are the grossest? Hands down people that came in wearing flip-flops. I could tell those that wore them habitually. They were dry, and dirty, and stank to high heaven. Just nasty.

Oh my gods! I used to be a massage therapist. I worked on a lot of feet. You know who’s feet are the grossest? Hands…

Way to just be contrarian. No one says this. No one is going to sit in a restaurant and hold a baby the entire time. No one is going to the grocery store and hold a baby while shopping the entire time. Now a baby body carrier? Sure. But that also has it’s share of issues for baby. And moreso than this bullshit story…

‘....why would I bother with that weird category of “breakfast” food items when I have perfectly good lunch food in the fridge?’

I’m a medical student and this honestly surprises me (not in a I-don’t-believe-it way, but in a wow-I’m-sheltered way). 

I tore pretty badly and I asked my doc after if she had at any point considered an episiotomy and she said that their practice agrees that it’s only in case of emergency and that natural tearing is... natural. (Even though it hurt like a bitch. Nothing like going through hours of labor, wanting to focus on your baby an…

Agree! listening to her interview on Freakonomics was great!

How the fuck is carrying a baby in one’s arms easier than carrying him in a car seat while he’s sleeping? If the baby falls asleep in the car, taking him out of the car seat will probably wake him up and then you risk having a fussy, squirmy baby in your arm(s) while trying to run some errands.

Seriously, congrats on coming up with the dumbest possible take. This article had nothing to do with how to carry a baby so I’ll assume you’re being ignorant to get a reaction. Here goes...

Emily Oster! She’s the author of “Cribsheet” and “Expecting Better” and brings a very grounded, systematic look at the evidence underlying a lot of the “mandatory suggestions” that are flung at parents. I highly recommend reading her books if you like her stuff. For a PhD in econ, she has a very engaging voice.

This screams correlation not causation to me, and this line is key - “A lot of times we just saw this context where the infant had been left in the car seat for hours and hours, and the supervisor was asleep or intoxicated during the time.” 

Doctor in a children’s hospital here. We’ve talked about this many times. Never seen a co-sleeping death where the parent involved wasn’t intoxicated... Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen (the plural of anecdote is not data), but it’s definitely a noticeable trend.

I feel like stuff like this is a function of the reality that there are zero “Acceptable losses” when it comes to babies dying. So ANY data (no matter how flawed, or poorly interpreted) that indicates an elevated risk results in blanket recommendations like this.

Infant baby seats are literally designed to click in and out of their bases exactly so you don’t need to wake the baby up. Obviously, yes, don’t just put them in there for 3 hours while you get your drink on, but letting the baby keep sleeping while mom and/or dad get to eat a meal with two hands is perfectly…

Babies...are not ALWAYS easy to hold. They are fragile, they wiggle, and they kick. Humans have been doing many things for ages, but that does not mean we should continue to do so.

I think the real answer is don’t be a shitty parent (or shitty anything when supervising an infant). Infants should never be put in a car seat to sleep at home, a crib or empty playpen is better and safer. Many times when my kids were in car seats and we would be driving, they would fall asleep and when we got home we…

When our infant had a cold and was having trouble breathing our Pediatrician told us to let him sleep in a car seat. It helps with the draining.

Correct.