Recently seen at USNews.com –

"For a blog by a doctor, check out drgreene.com, from pediatrician Alan Greene, a dad of four. He’s so friendly and down-to-earth that when I see him in person, I feel like we’re sitting in the backyard talking kid stuff over a beer. He was one of the first doctors to blog, way back in the 1990s, and he’s deeply interested in how new forms of communications and technology can improve healthcare." by Nancy Shute

Nancy, you’re welcome in our backyard anytime. What’s your favorite brand of beer?

In a blog post on the Daily Examiner, Eliza Martinez discusses her confusion as a parent in the world of plastics. Which recycling symbols are safe? Which can break down into children’s drinks? She outlines what you can be doing to reduce your children’s exposure to Bisphenol A, and cites Dr. Greene’s book Raising Baby Green. We are so glad she found this book a roadmap in a confusing world of news alerts and scientific studies galore!

As a player on the GreeneTeam (our name for the DrGreene.com staff), I admire our leader Cheryl Greene for so many reasons: her tireless dedication to DrGreene.com, her humor in dealing with life’s little emergencies, her passion to help parents learn as much as they can about how to raise healthy, happy children…. During the Greenes’ recent vacation, a small gesture gave me another reason to call her my hero (Read the story of her short-lived career as an Ecuadoran shoe shiner.)

But to understand how incredibly strong this woman is, you need to understand what she’s been through. Read Organic Farmer Chris Blanchard’s blog post on Eat Better News to understand how Cheryl’s diagnosis of breast cancer changed the Greenes’ lives forever. The story has a happy ending, and we look forward to Cheryl’s leadership of the GreeneTeam for a long, long time.

You can also read Cheryl’s story in her own words.

Thanks to blogger Ashley Schiller on Earth911.com for her top ten green books to read this summer. I discovered several green books I need to read. I might pick up The Green Teen for our 9th-grader. Author Jenn Savedge collects ideas to encourage young people to get involved in caring for our planet – great idea! And we’re flattered that one of our books made the list: Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care.

Another blogger, Snow from Recycledjunk, even called Raising Baby Green “the green parenting Bible.” Thanks, Snow!

Pick up your copy of Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care here!

Dr. Greene is proud of his work on the Declaration of Health Data Rights. The movement has started dialogs in the media and in the blogosphere, and we’re confident the conversations will continue. We were recently joined by HealthDame, who called our efforts “a key cornerstone in a completely new paradigm for health care, where patients can stop feeling powerless and start taking both more control and more responsibility.”

Stand up for your Health Data Rights! Click here to be a part of the movement.

We here at DrGreene.com are very proud to be one of the original endorsers of the Declaration of Health Data Rights, a statement of our rights as patients to have access to our own medical information.

We are kickstarting a grassroots movement that will harness the power of social media to influence policy makers to allow each individual to own his or her own records.

Please join us in supporting this mission. Read Dr. Greene’s blog post, the article from the Boston Globe or the blog post on NYTimes.com.

You, too, can endorse these rights to make a difference. Click here to learn more now!

I enjoyed discovering the inspiring blog of a mom whose daughter was born deaf. It chronicles the challenges and triumphs of a family overcoming the challenges that face the hearing impaired, with posts and videos of their speech therapy, advice about hearing aids and just beautiful moments between a mother and her daughter.

The blogger shared a video Dr. Greene did for Parents TV about earaches, and I’m heartened to know she enjoyed it.

Watch the video here.

A big thank you to The Health Care Blog for the mention of the Society of Participatory Medicine.  Dr. Greene has signed on as the first president of the new organization promoting Participatory Medicine as a way of giving patients themselves more information to participate in their own health care. We’re very proud to be involved with the pioneers who are leading the way to change.

I love Dr. Greene’s closing statements from the last Health 2.0 conference on “the dawn of patient-centered health care,” his philosophy that patient involvement and grassroots activism are the keys to reforming our health care system.

Watch the closing comments in Dr. Greene’s video here.

Read more about Participatory Medicine from BetterHealth.

DrGreene.com and Dr. Greene have again made front-page news! The leading independent newspaper for pediatricians, Pediatric News, put Dr. Greene on the front page of their April edition, calling our site “one of the most elaborate Web sites of any pediatrician.” I love that the article notes that pediatricians were pioneers on the web in the mid-1990s, when the internet was in its infancy. We founded DrGreene.com in December 1995 because we decided providing free information to parents was a calling, not a business plan. The AMA has cited DrGreene.com as the pioneer physician Web site. 

Alan and I dedicate our time and energy to sharing high-quality health information with you, our loyal readers. I’m proud we’ve been recognized by the pediatric community for this important work. 

Download the article from Pediatric News here….

I can’t remember a time when parents weren’t weighing the pros and cons between cloth and disposable diapers. Disposable are convenient and perhaps more comfortable when baby’s wet, but cloth don’t go to landfills and aren’t made of plastic. How does a parent choose?

Dr. Greene was quoted in a recent article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune about the resurgence of cloth diapers. As he said, each has its benefits and drawbacks. But whatever you choose, he advises to avoid products with TBT, chlorine and fragrance.

But here’s something to ponder… studies have linked male infertility to diapers – heat in a diaper can cause damage to the testicles. Read more here.