<aside> đź’ˇ A meta-analysis on medical parenting advice regarding infant crying, from the 1800s to today. A data-driven historical lens on parenting trends to give readers perspective.

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Narrative Outline:

Matt Feedback


1.1 Why?

Early parenting is exhausting, and it doesn’t help that every choice and decision seems like it might make or break our kid in the future, including seemingly tiny things like how to change diapers without damaging his lower back, which position his heads should be in and most importantly - whether or not to sleep train him.

Like everyone else, I started reading books and browsing the internet for advice. There is so much advice on the internet, thousands of rampant opinions of which less than half offer trustworthy advice.

Then I asked my parents, grandparents and doctors to consult the previous generations. They all confirmed taking a simpler approach with less parenting anxiety - to let babies cry. You can clearly see an evolution pre and post -2010, after which the norms on sleep training changed and the tolerance for baby crying dropped dramatically.

Today whether I ask around or search online there’s a tremendous amount of debate when it comes to letting infants cry, some of our friends would openly disapprove. Many parents signalling their willingness to put their baby’s needs above their own - sacrificing their sleep and health in the process - to a large public on Instagram or blogs, this shifts cultural standards and influences the parenting opinions of our friends.

All of this makes it much harder for us to make informed and unemotional decisions on what is best for our kid, and for us. Social pressure and judgement weighs heavily.

So I decided to look at the literature and make my own data-driven research.