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.

An excellent, excellent resource. As a new parent, it's easy to be both scared of vaccines, potential side effects, and the large companies that make them, but also scared of the potential of diseases and complications. Usually, information sources are either completely pro-vaccine (how dare you not get your child vaccinated! do you want them and every child around them to die of X?!) or completely anti-vaccine (vaccines are always dangerous and never helpful!), and therefore, it's hard to figure out what is fact and what is opinion in many sources. (Because stats and numbers can be manipulated to make any argument.) I feel that Dr. Sears covers all the bases and walks the middle line, giving you the arguments of both sides, facts to support them. (there was one instance of laying an opinion on statistics without actually presenting the stats, but I'll forgive that one instance because 99.9% of the book is objective). Then, he lets you make your own decision. Nothing in the book is written in a way to browbeat a parent. Nothing in this book desperately tries to convince you to vaccinate your child or not vaccinate your child. Gives straightforward, well-organized info on how common diseases are, effects and complications, vaccine ingredients, likeliness of side effects, and even tips to keep your child healthier in general. It even has a section devoted to questionable vaccine ingredients and additives, and discusses the pros and cons of those. Perhaps most importantly, however, there are primers on how to talk to your doctor about vaccines and what to ask or look for when getting them for your child. The book has been updated, but even the updates are a few years old, however, so are most vaccines, and the doctor does update his website with changes in ingredients (and you can presumably often find out from the manufacturers). So it's an excellent starting point. I truly believe that this book may change your opinion on vaccines, but if it does so, it does so by laying out information for you and letting you make your own conclusions, which is how it should be. I know reading it has helped me make decisions for my little one, and - while a parent will probably never sleep easy or learn to not worry at all - I have slept a little easier after reading this book.

Since there are many glowing reviews (which I agree with) I'll only add a few criticisms. Dr Sears is genuine and informs the reader without bias. There were only a few topics that I think he either missed or is disingenuous about. The first is the 'Vaccine Opponent' argument that disease cases were declining before vaccination. This has NEVER been an argument. No one will deny that vaccines have contributed to the astronomical decline in the targeted disease incidence. The argument is, and has always been, about morbidity and mortality from these diseases; Measles mortality was far fewer than the stat in the book (1 in 1000) at the time the vaccine was made. More like 1 in 10,000 to 100,000- figures are unknown due to lack of Measles case reporting at that time. My second criticism is the vague and dismissive discussion on Aluminum. Dr Sears clearly states his distaste of multi-dose vials containing Mercury: stating that even a little is probably not warranted to use. However, Aluminum seems to skate by with the only caution being to get only one Aluminum containing shot at a time. The research on Aluminum adjuvants at far lower doses than is currently used in pediatric vaccines is extremely damning. To his credit, Dr Sears does discuss the issue in the Vaccine Ingredients section. However, this discussion is woefully underinformed, as are all discussions regarding the routine use of Aluminum adjuvants, due to lack of study.

Let me introduce myself: mom of 6 ages 1-13. Until 6 months ago, I vaccinated all my kids without a peep. I figured doctor knew best and blindly followed along like a sheep to the slaughter. I heard a few murmurs against vaccines but I never bothered to look into it as I was busy raising my kids. Not too long along my nephew had a health issue directly related to a vaccine. Not that anybody would confirm it but my sister was 100% positive. So she started digging into vaccines. And I started hearing what she had to say. I watched Vaxxed. Opened my eyes to a whole new world. I read The Vaccine Epidemic, Millers Review of Critical Vaccine studies and Dissolving Illusions. Then I read this book and WOWOWOWOW what a book. Why is it so good, and what makes it different from all the other material I've seen and read until now? Because the book goes chapter by chapter, delving in each chapter into a different vaccine/illness. Unlike the other books which basically just attack the vaccine industry as a whole, (trust me, they deserve it) this book is more educational to parents. You get to see side by side the risk of the disease vs the risk of the vaccine. (No polio in he US since 1985? And they still vaccinate??) He also brings up any controversies regarding each particular vaccine. So I think every anti-vaxxer and pro-vaxxer MUST read this book, if only to be completely informed, instead of just being blind idiots or stubborn zealots. The funny thing about this book is that in the end of every chapter, he pretty much recommends the vaccine, whether for the teeny tiny chance it will help your child (yeah, right) or even as your patriotic duty (I wish I was kidding). But an educated, intelligent individual (that's me obviously) can't help but be drawn to the exact opposite conclusion as he does. This book helps create a middle ground- because maybe after reading it, parents might choose to give a few of the vaccines that prevent serious and common illnesses. If I was forced to give vaccines, I now feel more knowledgeable about which ones I might be willing to bend, and which I would not. I now purchased TWO copies just for the purpose of passing it around to my friends and family and to keep one on hand for reference. If my pediatrician hasn't read this, I know probably know more than he does.