Even when I agree with Emily Oster, I still disagree with her. Increasingly, I think she needs to get out of the business of making medical recommendations -- which is exactly what she does in Expecting Better. Because evaluating a handful of studies doesn't give her all the information she needs to make a recommendation, and she seems to have a habit of cherry-picking to make a point.

It's one thing to use her background to evaluate specific studies, and something else entirely to then make recommendations on that basis. I am cringing at myself for writing this, because I actually do completely agree with her overall message -- breastmilk isn't magic, it's just food, and it probably has no long term effects on kids (and I say that as someone who is still breastfeeding an almost 2 year old!!! I don't think breastfeeding is bad, just not what it is purported to be by breastfeeding advocates).

As an example of her cherrypicking, I see that nowhere does she mention that breastmilk is strongly linked to lower rates of necrotizing enterocolitis. It is more common in preemies and is very, very dangerous. This was first discovered in the 1970s and has been replicated many times, including in a randomized controlled trial (the gold standard of scientific evidence).

So, that's just one example of a condition that Oster conveniently glosses over to make her point. I think it's irresponsible, lazy, and dishonest. She should stop writing about things she doesn't actually have expertise on; the rest of us can google studies to justify our preconceived opinions too.