WIC (Women, Infant, and Children) is a nutritional supplemental program. The program was created in 1972 and it “is targeted towards pregnant women through pregnancy and up to 6 weeks after birth or after pregnancy ends, breast feeding women up to the infant's first birthday, non-breastfeeding postpartum women, infants up until their first birthday, and children up until their fifth birthday. (SITE) The target population are individuals who are low-income and nutritionally at risk. To determine this, the individual must have an income that is lower than average and also been seen by a medical professional to determine whether the person it at a nutritional risk. WIC has several services for mothers. These services include, supplemental nutritious foods, nutrition counseling, nutrition education, and screening and referrals to other health, welfare, and social services.
WIC services can be found in several areas. WIC programs are in hospitals, schools, community centers, mobile
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Women and infants are crucial in this world. Women are child bearers, and children are our future. Its important that these groups of individuals have a program that provides assistance to receive essential needs in order to become, and stay healthy. The second key objective is to provide assistance to women and children who are low income. Having low income can be detrimental to a women and child's health if they do not have access to basic needs. They may not have the financial ability to have access to services, so having a program that provides these services is beneficial. Finally, the last key objective is to assistance to women and infants who are nutritionally at risk. Being nutritionally at risk can cause many negative problems to an individual. Having a program to not only provide nutritional assistance, but also education, is what it needed for women and infants to achieve optimal
When children receive the nutrition they need, they are more likely to move out of poverty than adults. Read for the World. The dense streets of our country make strolling outside on a beautiful and perfect day or evening exhausting. The streets, roads, and sewers are perfusing with grimy looking, foul smelling, still breathing and talking corpses. Panhandling for food, water, clothes, and shelter all while fighting each other to get near you.
also known as WIC supplies almost fifty percent of the infant formula used in the US at no
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a federally funded program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service under the United States Department of Agriculture. Each state receives a grant to pay for WIC foods, administrative costs, nutrition education, and breastfeeding promotion and support. In 2009 WIC served approximately 9.3 million people per month. WIC services are available for nutritionally at risk, income qualified pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. The WIC program provides nutrient-dense supplemental foods, nutrition education, and health care referrals to those who qualify. The mission of WIC is “To safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age five who at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” (USDA)
World hunger is a very important epidemic because of the risks or implications it imposes on the rest of the world. Juveniles are the utmost apparent victims of under-nutrition. 2.6 million children die as a result of hunger-related causes each year. 66 million school-aged children go to classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone. One in four of the world's youth are kept from growing due to malnutrition. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three. A strong maternal-infant bond provided through psychosocial stimulation is essential for positive child development. The formation of this bond at the beginning of life is an essential step that sets the stage for cognitive,emotional, and social development later in life. Feeding and other care practices provide opportunities for psychosocial stimulation and help to establish a positive attachment between caregiver and child.(WHO) Under-nutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, such as measles,diarrhea and malaria. Asia has the largest number of hungry people (over 500 million) however S...
Wight, V. R., Chau, M., & Aratani, Y. (2010, Jan). National Center for Children in Poverty. Retrieved from Who are America’s Poor Children?: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_912.html
Women, C. R. (2007). Women Experiences of Social Programs for people with low income. CRIAW-Fact Sheet, 1-12.
As a consequence, low-income households suffer more health problems due to the lack of income. "Despite social assistance programs such as TANF, Women, Infants and children (WIC), food stamps, and Meals on Wheels, malnutrition exists primary among the old and the young in the United States". The American health care system which is based on ability to pay is not adequate to provide immediate services to poor people. Among the common health problems associated with children in poverty include asthma, lead poisoning and vision deficiency. (Koppelman and Goodhart, 2007)
What is WIC? Where does WIC originate from? WIC originally started as Special Supplemental Nutritional Program to protect the health of low-income woman, infants, and children up to the age of 5 who are at risk for poor nutrition. WIC was created as a two year program in 1972 by an amendment to the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. The program was geared to improve the health of pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, infants and children in response to growing concerns over malnutrition among many poverty-stricken mothers and young children. In 1974 WIC was functioning in 45 States, the first location was opened in Kentucky in January 1974. In 1975 WIC was established as a permanent program by legislation P.L. 94-105. The eligibility was also extended to non-breastfeeding women and children up to the age 5, before this extension WIC was providing services to breastfeeding mothers and children up to the age of 4. In 1978 legislation added new elements to the program: nutrition education must be provided, the supplemental foods should contain nutrients found lacking in the target population, and have relatively low levels of fat, sugar, and salt, and states needed to coordinate referrals to social services including immunization, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, child abuse counseling, and family planning. In 1992 WIC introduced an enhanced food package just for breastfeeding mothers to further promote breastfeeding. WIC had also created two programs from “Loving Sup...
Breastfeeding rates are continually increasing. The nutritional benefit of breast over formula is a long established fact. “According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breastfeeding rates improved nationwide in 2000-2008, and some of the greatest improvement was among black women. However, only about 59 percent of black mothers breastfed in 2008, compared to 80 percent of Hispanic mothers and about 75 percent of white mothers. For 2008 rates of breastfeeding at a baby’s first birthday, the number was about 23 percent overall but only 12.5 percent for black mothers. That low rate still marks a near doubling of rates among black mothers compared to the year 2000” (Currie, 2013).It is the recommended method of feeding an infant for at least the first six months of life. Breastfeeding has benefits to both mothers and their babies. The baby receives immunity to protect it from disease. Financially, breastfeeding can significantly reduce the burden of having a new child. Many mothers initiate breastfeeding in the hospital; however, the number of women who breastfeed until six months is very low (Guyer, Millward, & Berger, 2012). Breastfeeding is highly favored over bottle feeding. Yet, mothers still do not choose to continually breastfeed their infants. Do mothers who breastfeed during hospitalization have limitations or no desire to continue versus mothers who breastfeed for the recommended six months or longer at home?
health. “ Most parents of poor children have no medical insurance and don’t have the money to
Nearly 22% of pregnant women struggle from anemia. The reason for much of the lack of quality nutrients is due to food insecurity and food shortage for much of the country. However, there are opportunities that are helping to get things back into order. Families are starting to reserve food and there are several organizations like AIN-C and Feed the Children. Together we must increase the quality food and have enough food for the women and children to get the nutrients that they need.
Exposure to severe food insecurity leaves an indelible mark on children’s wellbeing, manifesting in greater risks for health conditions (Shimmin, 2016) Food insecure children have the highest rate of hospitalization due to poor overall health. Food insecure children are at least twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health and at least 3 times more likely to have asthma, compared to food secure children. (Lee, 2012) Food insecure children often do not get the nutrients and nutrition to develop, leading to a long line of health problems.
Similarly, malnutrition due to poverty can also be detrimental to health; especially, that of children. Application in my Current
Many studies illustrate that high quality child care helps children who have been brought up in poverty to develop skills that enable better education, jobs and earnings (Adelman). It would help to reduce poverty if more parents would invest money `into high quality child care, because children would be able to learn the skills that they should know to get a good education. In an article entitled “9 Ways to Reduce Poverty,” Larry Adelman stated that “Investments in infrastructure—fixing old bridges, building mass transit, converting to clean energy sources—and investments in vital services such as schools, childcare and eldercare generate both public benefits and jobs.” Investments in the most important buildings and structures in a community would help to create job opportunities, which could benefit people who are in poverty by allowing them the opportunity to get a job. Poverty reduction would benefit the economy and the people who suffer from
Institute for Research on Poverty. (2013). Health & Poverty. Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/research/health.htm