Recommended Reading

On eczema and allergies:

• Solveeczema.org
  Naturally, my recommendation for reading about solving eczema is my web site.
• Sammy’s Skin blog
  A mom shares her quest to cure her son’s terrible eczema without drugs, and how she found the answer with SolveEczema.org.  Beautiful description of the family’s journey with the site strategies.

• Touchpoints by T. Berry Brazelton
  This classic pediatric text gave us the key part of the puzzle when we were problem solving.  (Thank you again, Dr. Brazelton!)  Good section on preventing allergies.
• Green Up Your Cleanup by Jill Schoff
  Written by a mom who used Solveeczema to solve her baby’s eczema. Cleaning recommendations should fit within Solveeczema guidelines. (Disclaimer: I posted feedback from Jill Schoff on the web site, and have read the first online pages of her book that describe its content, but I have not yet seen or used the book.)

Best early childhood development guide:

• University of Wisconsin Extension web site.
  I found many great guides for the first year, such as What to Expect the First Year, but this site publishes what I believe is the best month-by-month development guide for the toddler and preschool years.  (They are redesigning the site – if the link is broken, look at www.uwex.edu under family publications.)

For encouragement and wisdom when problem-solving a chronic undiagnosed medical problem:

• Plague Time:  How Stealth Infections Cause Cancers, Heart Disease, and Other Deadly Ailments by Paul W. Ewald
  Biology professor Paul Ewald provides compelling evidence for the role of microbes in unsolved diseases often ascribed to genetic or psychological susceptibilities.
• A Dose of Sanity:  Mind, Medicine, and Misdiagnosis by Sydney Walker III, M.D.
  Neurologist/psychiatrist Dr. Sydney Walker “explains why it’s not all in your head.”  A helpful perspective on what disease is and isn’t.
• Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag
  Classic supportive text for patients who are blamed for their illnesses.  Written at a time when cancers were routinely blamed on patients’ emotional susceptibilities.

Miscellaneous:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  Just a great read.
• The Healing of America – A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Healthcare by T.R. Reid
  The best book I’ve seen on what needs to be done to reform the healthcare system in the US.  Also one of the most well-written — Reid’s prose is, in quality, reminiscent of Bryson’s:  accessible, beautiful, well-honed.  The right healthcare system reforms (mainly insurance reforms) would dramatically improve the practice and advancement of medicine in the US.
• Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
  Easy to read, compiles decades of research on human motivation.   Elegant scientific case for what I’ve always felt intuitively to be true but couldn’t articulate.  Important implications to education, work, and ordinary life.