Keeping your family healthy is a full time job! Especially lately.

Finding reliable medical advice online is a great perk of the new millennium now that the internet has come of age, but it can take time – and lots of it -  to find the right information. One of the top searches lately is… you guessed it, symptoms and ways to avoid the H1N1 virus. But who has the most reliable advice?

AND – as you well know, there are as many opinions on how medical care can be approached as there are children in the world, but not all advice online is reliable. (duh) Some are down right dangerous. Our families use many herbal remedies, but try to find that balance and rely on a qualified physician’s advice when necessary with anything beyond minor.

Whether you take the all natural approach or strictly your MD’s advice, we believe your best defense is to be informed. I don’t need to tell you that, do I? That’s why you’re reading this post!

These are are the top 10 resources we found that moms list when they are looking for good health information. Email us or leave a comment if you know of any others you think should be included! Thanks!

FYI: These are not listed in any order of preference or popularity. Here’s Momma’s Choice top 10 Health Sites:

WebMD - by far the most popular website for a wide variety of medical advice and tools, they even have a smithering of herbal information.

Medicine Net offers a symptom checker with advice from the 70+ board certified physicians. Easy to read, yet in depth information that you can trust. Owned and operated by WebMD.

Mayo Clinic is the premium source of medical help when no one else seems to have answers to your medical problems. Their online resources are excellent, and one of the most reliable.

Healthline is another good resource for educating yourself about what is wrong before you go to the doctor. You know better than to try to diagnose yourself, but sometimes you can discover related symptoms that you wouldn’t think to mention otherwise. Has a symptom search and a doctor search tool.

Family Doctor is a nicely organized website with a wealth of information at your fingertips. Videos, wellness charts, and drug interaction info are just a few of the perks on this site.

Drugs.com can help you find out what that stray pill you found is. You can also find information on side effects and drug interactions. You can also always call your pharmacist for lots of good information-that’s why they’re there!

Kid’s Health is a great website targeted towards kids, with three separate venues-Parents, Kids, and Teens. They address issues in a kid-friendly way such as healthy snacks, video games (are they unhealthy?), how the body works, and other questions kids might ask if they knew WHAT to ask. *Caveat: Mom, you might want to review this site first to be sure it isn’t beyond what you want your younger child wants to know. Looked OK to me, but different families have different ways of seeing things!

Mercola.com is purely an alternative health information website, but considered by many in the natural health community to be one of the most informative websites on the subject available online. You will be forced to register your email address in order to read articles, which I didn’t like, but they have been very respectful in what they send me.

RightHealth.com is one of the most visited health information websites in 2009. Writing many of the most up-to-date articles on the most popular subjects probably has helped, but we found it not as thorough as some of the others.

Discovery Health has a surprising amount of really interesting health information, and we all love some of their health documentaries, don’t we? If you prefer watching your information vs reading it, this will be your site.

If your focus is entirely natural health, here is a link to the top 10 natural health websites: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/119747/top_ten_natural_health_websites.html

(We’ll be covering herbal remedies much more thoroughly in the near future!)

Keeping Track Of Your Family Medical History

Also, not one of our listed medical resources, but your family history is some of the most important information your doc needs from you. Map out your family’s health history with a program offered by the US Dept of Health and Human Services. You can then print it out and give it to your doctor.

Obviously, there are many more informational sites, leave a comment on which ones you like best – it helps! Thanks.