The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child - Softcover

Sears, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316017507 ISBN 13: 9780316017503

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2007

Synopsis

With the 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 is 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.

About this title

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.

Reviews

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.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316017507
• ISBN 13: 9780316017503
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304