Week 7: Women, Infants, and Children

“The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.”

– quoted from the front page of the fsn.usda.gov website.

In summary, WIC can be a life-saving resource for mothers in times of need. WIC recently celebrated its 40th anniversary and produced a portfolio of awesome promotional material.

Source

I’ll confess that not yet a mother myself, WIC has been a challenge with a sharp learning curve. While I am generally in favor of evidence-based science before personal anecdotes, motherhood might be one of those areas where it helps to have experience.

Luckily, I have some great mentors (both RDs and educators) to learn from. I have graciously been welcomed into the WIC clinic to practice nutritional counseling with high risk clients.

The WIC Educator serves as the primary point of contact for clients. They each carry they own caseload and are responsible for client-certification, nutrition education, and the issuing of food vouchers. For those interested in working in pre/post natal nutrition, this could be a very rewarding career!

The dietitian is generally called in to consult with high-risk clients. This might include infants that have inadequate growth or are categorized as failure to thrive, mothers with severely low hemoglobin, preeclampsia, or gestational diabetes, and children that are >95th percentile or <2nd percentile.

Non-breastfeeding mothers are issued food vouchers to assist with formula. The average food package provides almost 16 x 25-oz cans of formula per month. Depending on the local cost of food and type of formula, this can total over $200 in assistance.