Saturday, June 11th, 2022
Special Edition: Expecting Better - Emily Oster on Baby Formula Shortage
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The ongoing story baby formula shortage in the U.S. has left many parents scrambling to find enough to feed their children. The shortage started after a critical manufacturing plant shut down and some products were recalled. That Abbott nutrition plant in Michigan reopened last week but the company warns it could still take nearly two more months before much of the formula is back on store shelves.
To help explain how any of this could happen, what parents should do, and what the data shows for the decades-old debate about breastfeeding versus formula, we spoke with economist, New York Times bestselling author, and mother Emily Oster. Time magazine recently named her one of its “100 most influential people” of the year, citing her data-driven and popular advice about parenting and pregnancy in her books “Expecting Better,” “Cribsheet” and “The Family Firm.” And now, she’s sharing the latest data-driven information with us, too.
This episode is brought to you by kiwico.com (Listen for the discount code) and Pampers.com
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Guest: Emily Oster
Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. Oster’s academic work focuses on health economics and statistical methods. Her work also concerns methods for learning causal effects from observational data.
Oster’s books analyze the data behind choices in pregnancy and parenting. “Expecting Better” analyzes the data behind many common pregnancy rules, and aims to improve decision-making for pregnant women. “Cribsheet” does the same for early childhood — what does the evidence really say on breastfeeding, co-sleeping or potty training.
“The Family Firm” takes this approach to parenting in the early school years, looking at data on school, extracurriculars, sleep and also providing a framework to make unexpected decisions and address the logistical challenges of this period of parenting. Oster lives in Providence, RI with her husband (also an economist) and two children.
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