New parents are faced with countless decisions about how to best care for their baby, and naturally turn to friends and family who have already raised their own children for advice. But scientists are increasingly discovering that it is time to carefully reconsider much of the "trustworthy" advice that has been passed down from generation to generation. Should you teach your newborn to sleep alone? Why is breastfeeding better than formula? Should you let your baby cry before holding him? Is it really important for a child's healthy development to talk to him and sing him songs? Do parenting styles really shape personality and character from the moment of birth? And how do we care for babies who cannot communicate their needs?

The author of this book, an anthropologist who has carefully studied parenting behavior in different cultures, asks these important questions, and her answers are sometimes not simple unexpected, but also capable of completely changing our approaches to caring for babies.