The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child (Updated in 2023) (Sears Parenting Library)

As a new mom, this book was referred to me by a nurse practitioner (degree from Vanderbilt). This book is a must for parents. It is non biased, not pro or against vaccines by a California pediatrician. It provides the key information on each vaccine: ingredients, what decade it was approved, side effects, history, pros and cons. It explains the VAERS reporting system, Vaccine Adverse Reaction Event Reporting government data. Important information on vaccine reactions in children. The book also discusses the risks of each disease per child’s age. Discusses what decisions could put your child at lower risk till age 2 (breastfeeding, one shot at a time to track side effects, home care vs day care settings…). Information on delayed, alternative or selective vaccine schedules is very helpful. We found delayed schedules very informative. It the is basic information parents should use in their child’s care plans. If you don’t know, you don’t know.

I really enjoyed this book and how it was laid out. Easy to follow and gave great, evidenced based information. Highly recommend.

I bought this book wanting to get the anti-vaccine side of the argument, because I was told this book had references to real white-paper studies and not just the endless string of tear-jerking but scientifically meaningless anecdotal stories that you see on TV and read about online. I was very impressed with and surprised by this book. It was not anti-vaccine at all, it simply described each vaccine and each ingredient and presented the most current scientific safety study findings on each, along with the corresponding risks of each disease. Drawing no conclusions, Dr. Sears challenges each parent to make their own decision about each vaccine's use and schedule one at a time, with specific advice for various scenarios (breast-fed at home vs 5 days/week in daycare, for example). My wife and I were pleased to find ourselves intuitively designing our own custom vaccine schedule as we read through the book, custom tailored for our unique situation. After reading, we choose to almost fully vaccinate, but on a schedule we were comfortable with and against a set of risks that we now understand very well and can defend to anyone based on scientific evidence. All facts in the book are backed up with specific white-papers which Dr. Sears annotates as you go through the book, so you can cross-reference the research yourself (some vaccines intrigued me more than others). This is the only resource (including FDA and CDC) that we have found so far that provides a balanced, fair-minded, non-dogmatic approach to the broad topic of vaccination. The reality is made clear: each vaccine is an individual medical treatment, not a component in a holy war. This book if not for parents who are trying to find a new religion, overthrow the government; instead, it's for parents who prefer to proactively make medical decisions based on white papers they have read and understood (e.g. Engineers). If you don't like making your own spreadsheets, at the end of the book Dr. Sears describes the 4-5 categories most people find themselves in after reading (from fully vaccinating on CDC schedule all the way to no vaccinations at all), and provides specific recommended plans for each category of parent. But don't be lazy; make your own plan as you go. If you want, you can then compare you plan to the various plans Dr. Sears recommends, and if you can't justify why your plan is different than one of the recommended ones, do more research until you can explain those differences confidently. Our plan is slightly different than any recommended in this book, but this book gave us the tools we needed to form our plan with confidence that it is optimal for our daughter.

I don't know if anyone else has done this yet, but this is a detailed breakdown of what is in this book. It is more information than I ever expected, in a format that is sectioned down in consistent and easy to read and reference. Personally, this is one of the best investments I made prepping for my brand new role as a mother. I bought it in my second trimester. I poured through it making notes and highlighting as I went. Dr Sears IS pro-vaccine, yet he writes from a neutral stand point giving you facts. But he is not here to tell you to get vaccines, rather to guide you in making the right choices for you! I'm pretty sure those that gave one star are those that have not even read a word of this book, but are rather so adamantly against just the idea of people not vaccinating that they must discredit a wealth of knowledge that benefits ALL parents and children. It starts with the current to date vaccine schedule chart. He then goes over each vaccine in order, each vaccine being their own chapter, and following a consistent format per chapter. The history of the disease. The description, likelihood of getting it, and the statistics including the risk factors involved for your child should they contract it, the short term and potentially long term outcome or damage, and the mortality rate. So basically the risks of not getting the vaccine. Followed by the risks of getting the vaccine. Common immediate reactions, more significant risks which can be different according to each company that makes the vaccine. (These are all based off of case studies and statistics). The different versions that may be made as a single disease vaccine, or as a combination vaccine, which also depending on the maker. Single and Combo are both gone over thoroughly. All known side effects and their likeliness per maker of the vaccine, in past versions and current ones, the ingredients and specific amounts of things like aluminum and formaldehyde. Aluminum being especially important because if your pediatrician is using certain ones that contain higher levels, you would not want to get them at the same time as another with mid to high aluminum levels. Meaning you might want a different brand for one, or if that's not an option for you, wait until the next visit for the other vaccine containing aluminum, thus keeping levels in your child lower and safe. Some contain eggs, which your child may be allergic to. If there is a particular maker with risks that aren't worth taking the chance, he will tell you that he doesn't recommend that certain brand/combo for that vaccine- not to be confused with not getting one all together. At the end of each of those chapters, he weighs in. Recommending whether this is one he personally believes you really shouldn't skip, or whether it's one that is not really necessary in scenarios such as a breastfed child who is not in daycare until a certain age. Whether the vaccine is given primarily as protection for the child, or more as protection for someone exposed to the child, with the child simply being an unaffected carrier. Like being a potential risk around a pregnant mother. If you are uncomfortable with following the recommended schedule of what and when, he has chapters at the end that help you with a delayed or selective schedule, or customizing your own. Does this help you realize how important this book is? And why we as parents should take the responsibility of knowing what is injected in our child and why?

Knowledgeable, insightful, and so helpful!! He breaks down every childhood vaccine from the ingredients to the studies. Dr. Sears also lays out each of the illnesses and how serious/treatable they are. This book is a must-read for every parent to be well informed.

Thank you so much, Dr. Bob, for consolidating so much information so parents have all the information, good and bad, to make informed decisions. I have so much peace with my decisions after using this book to help inform them. A must read for all vaccine parties.

Extremely informative book, giving the pros and cons for vaccination from a doctor that is pro-vaccines (we've read all sorts of books from doctors that were anti-vaccine so we thought we should hear both sides). The book helped illuminate the current problem with the existing vaccine schedules in the US and Canada and provided guidance and alternative schedules for those not comfortable with the current vaccine schedule. This booked further confirmed that we made the right decision not to vaccinate our child, and also provided tips on how to guard our child against these contagious viruses and what are the available treatments for each virus if our child did become infected. Very good book, easy to read for all parents. It should be a must for all parents before making the very important decision on vaccines. I bet a lot of physicians would also learn a lot from this book!

if you have kids, please read this book, inform yourself and discuss with the health provider if needed

We have been undecided on whether to vacconate our baby. We found this book very helpful and informative - in terms of providing information about the illnesses (how common/ rare they are; symptoms); vaccine ingredients; why people have the vaccine, why they might not; alternative schedules. Another reviewer has said the book is pro-vaccination and Sears does recommend most of the vaccinations but is not pushy or in the camp of 'your child will die if yu do not do this'. it is respectful that having your child vaccinated can be a diffiult decision for many parents. Note this is based on US research/ vaccination programme - but as a UK resident I still found it very helpful.

In this book, he goes into the plus and minus of each vaccines. Just great if you are looking to create a custom vaccination plan.