I think the hardest thing for parents to discern is the motivation behind the advice, books, articles etc. While I would definitely say that I am a critical-thinker (the "don't-believe-everything-you-see/read/hear" type) I do think that alot of the people doling out some of the, at best, erroneous advice really do believe that what they are advising works and will make for good routine,nutrition,intelligence, the list goes on.

I think research is also a tricky subject as a basis for "proving" methods. Just look at the stats for interventions in some hospitals and by some obstetricians but with volumes of medical journals behind them, many women never question whether these interventions were really, truly necessary (NB: am not debating homebirth vs hospital vs obstetrician vs midwife, just illustrating a point). On the other side of the coin, so many women find relief from naturopathic and homeopathic support during birth but the amount of research/studies into these methods pales in comparison to the more medicalised forms of assistance.

I'm not arguing with anyone, just wanted to say that "expert" is a bit of a subjective title and research sometimes has it's own agendas. In the end, it's up to all of us to go make up our own minds about what we see, hear, read and post