William Sears (physician)

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William Sears, also known as Dr. Bill Sears, was born December 9, 1939, in Alton, Illinois. He is an American pediatrician and author who popularized attachment parenting, a parenting approach that emphasizes close bonding, emotional availability, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and babywearing into toddlerhood. He wrote The Baby Book and many other books on parenting.

Sears studied at Saint Louis University and became a physician after medical training at Boston’s Children's Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In 2004, he was an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine. He and his wife Martha have eight children, three of whom became doctors, including Jim Sears and Bob Sears. His ideas were influenced by his experiences as a father and by Jean Liedloff’s The Continuum Concept.

A familiar TV presence, Sears has appeared on shows such as 20/20, Donahue, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, and Dateline. He now runs the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute and contributes to BabyTalk and Parenting magazines. Sears and his family were involved with Juice Plus dietary supplements, which led to advertising complaints about misleading claims.

Time magazine spotlighted him in 2012 with the cover story “The Man Who Remade Motherhood.” Critics say attachment parenting can be demanding for parents and has been described by some as a fad. Sears has published more than 40 books, translated into 18 languages, including Nighttime Parenting, The Baby Book, The Discipline Book, and The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood.

He survived stage III colon cancer in 1997. As of 2009, he lived in San Clemente, California, and ran a private pediatric practice with his sons.