The nutrition program for women, infants and children was operationalized in 1972 when a national survey identified anemia and inadequate growth as common conditions affecting American children from low-income families. The program was availed throughout the country in 1974. Its areas of focus include nutrition, breastfeeding education, improved access to health care and social services and nutritious foods ("Department of Health | WIC |", 2018). The WIC programs targets postpartum and breastfeeding women as well as children who are susceptible to nutrition-related health issues.
WIC performs different functions including offering food package as well as nutrition education for all individuals, nutrition and food security improvement, issuing food vouchers that contain supplemental foods that have the required nutrients, offer health and nutrition screening in addition to conducting nutrition or health counseling aimed at improving dietary habits. Other functions include promoting the adoption of healthy lifestyles, promoting and supporting exclusive breastfeeding, offering nutrition education according to the risk factor and interest of the participants, integrating programs and referring program participants to the required health care, social and community services ("Department of Health | WIC |", 2018).
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The WIC program plays an integral part to the low-income families by enhancing their well-being. The above functions help to improve the lives of the women and children. Breastfeeding education, for example, can enhance the life of the mother and the infant. According to studies, breastfeeding can help mothers lose weight, lower the risk for ovarian and breast cancer and also helps in the recovery of the uterus. Breastfeeding has many benefits to the babies including enhanced immunity, reduced infections and other illnesses (Khanal, Scott, Lee, Karkee & Binns, 2015).
WIC program food package and nutrition education offer dietary guidelines that help all individuals who are two years and above including their families on the need to eat a healthy and a nutritionally healthy and adequate diet. Similarly, the program promotes infant feeding practices that meet the provisions of the American Academy of Pediatrics in order to enhance long-term breastfeeding. The WIC participants can, therefore, access a wider variety of foods (Khanani Elam, Hearn, Jones & Maseru, 2010). The state also is flexible to prescribe food packages that accommodate the cultural differences while serving the participants with medical provisions in a single food package in order to efficiently manage the ones who have special dietary needs.
References
Khanal, V., Scott, J., Lee, A., Karkee, R., & Binns, C. (2015). Factors associated with Early Initiation of Breastfeeding in Western Nepal. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health , 12 (8), 9562-9574. doi: 10.3390/ijerph120809562
Khanani, I., Elam, J., Hearn, R., Jones, C., & Maseru, N. (2010). The impact of prenatal WIC participation on infant mortality and racial disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 100(S1), S402-S209.
Department of Health | WIC | Nutrition, and Breastfeeding. (2018). Retrieved from https://nj.gov/health/fhs/wic/nutrition-breastfeeding/
