Product Description

With the recent spate of publicity surrounding the possible health risks posed by childhood immunization, parents are no longer simply following doctor's orders and automatically having their children vaccinated. Instead, they are asking questions. The problem is the search for answers only leads parents to conflicting, one-sided information: doctors claim that parents are endangering their child's life if they refuse shots, while radical vaccine opponents claim parents are endangering their child's life if they accept shots. With THE VACCINE BOOK, parents finally have one, fair, impartial, fact-based resource they can turn to for answers. Each chapter will be devoted to a disease/vaccine pair and offer a comprehensive discussion of what the disease is, how common or rare it is, how serious or harmless it is, the ingredients of the vaccine, and any possible side effects from the vaccine. Ultimately, parents will have to make their own informed decisions as Dr. Bob Sears is neither pro-vaccine nor anti-vaccine. But THE VACCINE BOOK will provide exactly the information parents want and need as they make their way through the vaccination maze.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #238 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Sears, coauthor of several books in the Sears Parenting series, addresses one of today's most controversial and worrisome questions. Sears' goal is "to give you a balanced look at pros and cons of vaccination so that you can make an educated decision." Sears does not advocate for or rail against vaccination, stating it doesn't have to be an all or nothing decision-there are choices. The first 12 chapters discuss each vaccination in the childhood series, providing explanation of the relative disease, how the vaccine is made and points to assess a child's at-risk level when considering if the vaccine is necessary. Sears does offer guidance for those who are indecisive, offering his opinion based on clinical experience and 13 years of research taken from product inserts, pediatric reference books, articles and databases. Additional chapters illuminate more controversial aspects of the debate, such as how vaccine safety is researched and what the findings are, side effects and how to minimize them, common myths and questions. As always, Sears' tone puts readers at ease as he clearly explains medical terms and elucidates debates.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
It's the most evenhanded and thorough look at baby immunizations we've yet seen. (Babytalk )

An exhaustively researched guidebook. (Newsday )

About the Author
Robert Sears is a board certified pediatrician in private practice with his father, William Sears. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University and completed his pediatric training at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. He is the co-author of The Baby Book (revised edition), The Premature Baby Book, and The Baby Sleep Book.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book
This was a great book. I started the research on vaccines late, my daughter have gotten 2 full rounds of shots already. As a new parent I had some concerns on this topic and although I did some research online, I was overwhelmed by the amount of information on pros and cons available online. I needed something that summarized everything, the pros and cons and let me make the decision. I thought that this is what this book did. It gave me enough info about each vaccine, what it was for, about the decease itself, how the vaccine is made, the pros and the cons, what is controversial about it etc. I feel that I have learned enough about it to make an informed decision. I think that all parents that have concerns about shots should read this book. It really has a lot of good information and it is not biased for or against vaccines.

Read this book!! Well-balanced with facts to make an educated decision about vaccinations
I encourage every parent to read this book despite your stance on immunizations. Dr. Sears gives so much information about each vaccine and its components. He also gives facts about studies that have been conducted and talks about the lack of studies specifically about aluminum amounts in the immunizations. My daughter is 3 months old. I have decided to follow his Alternative Vaccination Schedule. After reading this book and other articles online, and talking with friends whose children had reactions to vaccinations, I feel that I should give my daughter vaccinations to protect her against diseases but that the combination shots are unnecessary and carry a higher risk of side-effects. I also believe that the standard Vaccination Schedule is too aggressive for such small little babies. I have Kaiser Permanente and most of the Pediatricians feel I should stick to the standard schedule, but it is my decision as a parent and I feel comfortable with my decision. Our doctors have always respected my wishes.

A Must Read
This was a very informative and and objective look at modern vaccines and whether or not they are necessary. A must read for those who are looking to be informed about their children's health.