William Sears (physician)

William Penton Sears, known as Dr. Bill and born on 9 December 1939 in Alton, Illinois, is an American pediatrician and the author or co-author of many parenting books. Raised Catholic, he studied for the priesthood at Mundelein Seminary but left to raise a family, graduated from Saint Louis University in 1962 and went on to medical school, with residencies at Children's Hospital Boston and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is best known for The Baby Book of 1993, which popularized attachment parenting, including breastfeeding, co-sleeping and babywearing, and his advice put him at odds with Richard Ferber over letting babies cry themselves to sleep. By 2012 he had published more than 40 works translated into 18 languages, and he served as an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine. His advice has been called demanding of mothers, and some have described attachment parenting as a fad. He and his family also promoted Juice Plus supplements, and in 2005 the Better Business Bureau reviewed advertising for the product. He practises in Capistrano Beach, California.