Too Much Information?

I’m not a trained medical professional. I don’t know much of anything about how the human body functions. I hated tenth grade biology, which was the last biology class I took. I did get certified in CPR and first aid, but I’m pretty sure I’d freeze in any situation requiring me to use it. Now that I have a little baby, though, I feel the pressure to get up to speed, at least when it comes to keeping little babies safe. Which is why I started delving into baby health info on the web. In particular, I like to read the Pediatric Grand Rounds, a best-of compilation of blog posts from health professionals and parents. It’s got good, often entertaining, information. There are good discussions of the issues in the comments, too.

The problem is, a lot of this stuff is hard to put into the proper context. It’s easy to become convinced of the importance of good sleep, but how do you figure how to make sure she actually gets it? Which expert do you believe? The one that tells you to let her cry herself to sleep, or the one that tells you to comfort her when she cries out for you? And what about the fact that in other cultures all over the world, the baby will sleep with the parents? Those kids seem fine, so why do the docs here tell us we can’t do that? When’s the best time to introduce solid foods? I don’t want to do it too early so that she becomes allergic to everything, but I don’t want to wait too long, because she needs those nutrients.

I’ve got lots of questions, but very few answers and it makes my brain hurt. What’s worse, the more you try to figure it out, the more confused you become. There’s just so much information on the web, and so much of it contradictory, that even if you could tell for certain which sources were credible your head would still explode. Somebody, please help me.