The Vaccine Book by Robert W. Sears, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Dr Sears III or IV or something (I’m pretty sure it’s not the original Dr Sears.) has written a guide to Vaccines that is thorough, informative and not fear based. When it came to vaccinating my kids, I was terrified to proceed because of all the scary literature out there about possible side effects.
Friends called to warn me about the great harm I was doing my children by vaccinating them and how if I chose to do so, I could be responsible for their health problems later in life, including but not limited to autism and eventually painful death. I was freaked out. If I didn’t vaccinate, I could be ushering polio back into the world. If I did vaccinate, I could be saving the world, while sacrificing my child’s safety.
Every pediatrician I talked to said I MUST VACCINATE while every book and website I read said to vaccinate was practically child abuse.
In the end I decided to go with the collective wisdom of the medical community as delivered to me by my trusted advisor, a pediatrician I adored. She explained that the possible effects of the diseases far outweighed the possible side effects of the vaccinations and assured me that none of the clinic’s vaccines included mercury. I chose to believe her since I was too overwhelmed to sift through all the conflicting information myself.
What I like about Dr Sears’ book is that it explains that the decision to vaccinate is not an all or nothing choice. He goes through each vaccine individually, explaining how it’s made, what it contains, what it prevents, how serious and common the disease is and what side effects can be realistically expected as a result of the vaccine.
I really feel much more informed and am on my way to developing a detailed vaccination plan for my kids, a plan which may involve delaying or skipping certain vaccines or asking for specific brands to control the ingredients been injected into my kids’ bodies.
This book is definitely worth a perusal by any parent who has questions or concerns about vaccine safety. Although it seems obvious that Dr Sears supports the use of vaccines, I think he does a fairly good job of laying out the information impartially.
Vaccines freak me out, too! I haven’t had any friends tell me my kid is going to die, though. Yet. I’m going to read that book.
Thank you so much for pointing me to that resource! We automatically did all vaccines for The Biscuit because we knew he would be going into the hospital for surgery and 1) didn’t want surgery delayed because he wasn’t up-to-date and 2) hospitals are where all the really bad germs are. But with The Cupcake I wasn’t sure what to do. Our family doctor retiring and moving means that she hasn’t had anything since 2mo (she’s now 10mo) and I was wondering what I was going to do. Knowing I could ask for a specific brand so that she (and by extent her brother with health issues) are protected without putting her at risk makes me VERY happy!
I didn’t know there were specific brands? I hope my library has this book.
that sounds a lot like the one we use, it’s called “vaccinations: a thoughtful parent’s guide”
I’m not especially pro or anti on vaccines. What i am is very suspicious of too many shots at the same visit, and of having the same schedule for everybody in the country, as if there was the same disease risk and vaccine safety no matter the child’s individual situation.
I love that he wrote this book. I think too many mothers just take their doctor’s word for it, and don’t put enough research, pondering, and prayer into the decision to vaccinate. We pray, ponder, and meditate on so many other things in our lives but how many of us do that for our children’s health? We must take control of our family’s health. We must learn to listen to our inner voice, our inner knowing, the intuition that God has blessed us with. I personally haven’t vaccinated, but it isn’t a blanket decision. It is a decision I pray and ponder on for each of my children. I just want mother’s everywhere to remember to listen to that inner knowing. Okay, off my soapbox.
I have a friend whose first child is autistic. She was afraid the vaccines might have caused or contributed to the autism, so she said “no” to vaccines for her next child. Well, her second child…. without vaccines…. is showing the same signs of autism at 3 years of age.
Personally, I decided to spread out vaccines for my second child (one every three to six months) and I’m glad I did. It made it a little more inconvenient for everyone, but who cares!? My daughter came to hate the doctor’s office, but I knew it was okay and she would get over it.
What do you think about the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine? A doctor friend told me it had a component in it from aborted fetuses… urban legend? Or is it true? It freaked me out a little, but I haven’t done any research on it. Is that one in your book? My kids need to be re-vaccinated for it because the first vaccination was supposedly not effective, but I didn’t want to until I knew for sure. You never see a kid with chicken pox anymore. I remember being taken to a home where it was so I could catch it and “get it over with”. LOL! How’s that for careful mothering. “Honey, we’re going to Susie’s home because they have an active disease and I want to roll you in it so you’ll get a fever, itchy sores alll over your body, and you’ll scar up real nice. Okay, sweetie?” funny….
I am deeply, deeply suspicious of the anti-vaccination movement, which I think of as misguided at best – not that some vaccinations haven’t caused harm, of course, but the effects of a LOT of kids being unvaccinated are just terrifying to contemplate. That sounds like a wonderful book – I truly trust Bill Sears.
I believe in vaccines.
There was one that I studied to make sure of my decision about:
I made sure that we had the dead polio vaccine because I know that my immune system isn’t the best and if I changed diapers with live polio in it I could’ve gotten sick.
I even made sure to ask the nurse if it was the dead polio vaccine right before she gave it to my child… (the live was a liquid they drank and the dead was a shot) , she said, “Oh! No…?” Excuse me, we need the dead polio! She had to pack up what she’d brought in and go get the needle with the dead polio vaccine.
Thank goodnees I am hyper aware and paranoid. 🙂
thanks for the book suggestion, Knowledge IS power!
You should ask your homeopathy neighbor about immunizing with homeopathy. It can be done and is much more effective, in my understanding. And you don’t have to worry about the thermasol or aluminum. I don’t vaccinate my children, but have considered the homeopathic way, if only I had the money. I’m glad that there is a good book out there that explains it all. I’ll keep that in mind. I actually had a pediatrician say I would need to find another doctor if I chose not to vaccinate. Needless to say I didn’t go back. It should be the parents choice. I live in a state that is very liberal in that way. I didn’t even have any problem getting my child into kindergarten, just signed a waiver. I love that.
I did vaccinate (to me it was weird not to) but we live in TX and there’s a large migrant population, a lot of people from Mexico who come to work seasonally here, and many of the illnesses we vaccinate for are still prevalent in Mexico. So for us the risk of contracting the various illnesses far outweighed the risk of side effects from the vaccines.
Also got the chicken pox vaccine for my son. Even thought I was exposed over and over again, I didn’t get it until I was 14 and it was awful.
But I also know kids who got the vaccine and still got chicken pox.
I totally agree. This book was such a relief for me. It’s about as unbiased as you can get and doesn’t play on fear fear FEAR. It’s not all or nothing. It really helped me come up with a plan.
We vaccinate. My daughter was one to get the chicken pox from the vaccine, though. I attribute this to her having been ill with a double ear infection earlier in the month. I think that her immune system was a little taxed. So, I would hold off if your child has been ill.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for recommending this book.
I don’t have kids but this issue still freaks me out…and I would like to have some simbalance of a gameplan when I do have kids.
My problem with the whole thing is babies don’t come with a syringe and a vial full of monkey serum or something and all the other disgusting things that go into vaccines. Look up what goes in to them, then ask yourself if you would ever take those elements and put them in their mouth. Bad mom, if you would!!! (Actually, did you know that letting your child just grow up playing in the dirt outside goes a long way toward giving him/her a strong immune system? )Now what in the world would make you bypass that awesome defense system that the whole oral cavity and stomach has for filtering out poisons, and let that poison within a heart-pump be in every organ of the body unprotected??. It would actually be SAFER to be a ”˜bad’ mom and give the cruddy contents orally, as the body was designed to filter poisons that way! That said, i was given vaccinations by my doctor as a child(only 4 back then!!!—now it’s up to 50 different doses by the time you complete the vaccination schedule and they are working on more………mmmmmm, i wonder whom this really benefits??)… i wound up with Tuberculosis from an orally administered live vaccine, and unbeknownst to me, all the hacking i did, all the lung problems, and scarring of the lungs, was due to the shot. I thought i had bronchitis, or, my doctor did, and it wasn’t till i went to work for a food establishment many years later and had to be tested for TB, that we found the damage on x-rays. From that point on i have worked hard to build up my immune system, never had another drug in my life(that’s been 30 years now), never gave my children any vaccinations, built up their immune systems with great foods(see Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)””(one even contracted whooping cough, but did great), and never took one of them to the doctor for ANYTHING, not even well baby checks,…..not that i wouldn’t if i hadn’t needed to, but when you feed them right(and that takes an education, too,) but the info is out there, if you turn off the controlling media and big money interests and their continual advertising and fearmongering, and trust your own instincts, and God, if you say you believe in Him. But they were never seriously ill, and i believe, exactly BECAUSE of my making the hard choice. It seems easier and ’safer’ to get the shots(because we have been taught to think that way), but you have to think not just about short term diseases, but long-term, like allergies, learning disorders, cancer, diabetes….read, read, read, and pray, don’t just read this book, but go read A Shot in the Dark, and keep reading. Ask yourself….why diseases were already majorly on the decline BEFORE shots were introduced. The info is out there!! Inform yourself. Get confident through learning. Don’t freak out. Knowledge is power, and most of us don’t listen in school and quit studying after we graduate. We put too much power in the hands of the few, and then we wonder why we loose our freedoms! It’s interesting that the Jews in the Bible were protected from diseases other nations around them were dying of, because of very specific guidelines God gave them in the Old Testament for cleanliness…we know the plague and other horrible diseases resulted because people were so ignorant of basic sanitation that we so take for granted today.(People in other nations both at that time, and even today, introduce/d things into their bodies too horrible to mention, and we call it witches brew……hmmmm…..is it sanitized because we inject those vile contents via a sterile needle?….. since it doesn’t come out of a black cauldron?. Seriously! Think about it!!