The Pros And Cons Of WIC

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutritional Services is a federal program that provides health care and proper nutrition to low income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women during a crucial time for both mothers and babies. The mission of WIC is to “safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” (Food and Nutrition Service, 2010).

WIC assists recipients to helps sustain healthy growth and development by meeting nutritional needs as well as by providing recipients with education on the benefits of nutritious food habits so that these habits can continue long after eligibility for WIC benefits ends. WIC is funded annually through the appropriations committee process by grants to each state. The program is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Service

They advocate for the 8 million+ mothers and young children served by WIC and the 12,000 WIC agencies who facilitate WIC’s public health nutrition services for all the at-risk poverty stricken mothers and young children. Their mission statement, similar to WIC’s, is “to inspire and empower the WIC community to advocate for and promote quality nutrition services for all eligible mothers and young children and assure effective management of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children

The Cherokee nation of Oklahoma is one of the many native Indian tribes that place a great emphasis on health care. There are noticeable efforts in improving the health system in the Cherokee nation as well as the health of its individuals. For a long time, the Cherokee nation has engaged in successful health care experiences such as building health centers, launching health programs or even individually engaging in the health field to improve the overall healthcare in the nation.

Native Americans’ bodies could not handle the extra fat and sugar in their diet. This, coupled with a decrease in intense exercise, increased obesity and brought on the rise of diabetes. The sudden lack of exercise resulted in a significant weight increase in the Native American community. Indians were used to roaming the countryside. They had to follow the buffalo or move to warmer weather. Now, they were put into permanent homes and bought their food. This created an overweight, obese group of people. Studies estimated that the overall occurrence of obesity among Native Americans was 13.7 percent for men and 16.5 percent for women. These are higher than the United States’ rates of 9.1 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively. It is reported that the United States spends $93 billion a year on preventable obesity- related illnesses and diseases.

Native American resevations are constantly plagued by alcoholism, domestic violence, and teen suicide. Apparently living in poverty that is bad like this with all of the stress and lack of proper food, links Native Americans to diabetes as well. According to the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, “the ‘thrifty gene’ theory proposes that Aferican Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans inherited a gene from their ancestors which enabled them to use food more efficiently

Native Americans have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Native Americans are 60% more likely to be obese and are over twice as likely to have diabetes than the general population. These numbers are even higher for Southwest Native Americans. But their diet is very similar to the rest of modern society. So why do Native Americans suffer these conditions at higher rates than the general population? The answer may be found in new research that is beginning to point to a genetic cause for these conditions. In a study by Peggy Halpern, Ph.D. for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, she found that historically Native Americans of the

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the health status of the American Indian/ Alaskan Native (AI/AN). A comparison and contrast of AI/ANs with the national average regarding the health status such as heart disease and strokes will be presented. Multifactorial barriers limiting health, and the overall factors affecting health within this population are identified. Current health status will be presented including health promotion and disparities among this US population. Primary, secondary, and tertiary health promotions will be discussed along with one approach to promoting health offered.

47. The WIC program is a nutritional education component that takes care of people who can’t take care of themselves.

also known as WIC supplies almost fifty percent of the infant formula used in the US at no

Currently, Community Prevention Partnership of Berks County, Nurse Family Partnership, home visitation Program, provides services to first time low income expectant mothers. The organization has been delivering the program for many years. Successfully, the program serves 250 families. The Berks county, Nurse Family Partnership program has served 1600 first time poor mothers, and 1250 children since it began. Most NFP clients by the time of referral are 18 years of age. Accordingly, the thirty-one percent of this first-time mothers receives Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and about fifty five percent are receiving Medicaid assistance. In fact, the household income average is 16, 000 and fifty two percent of mothers have not obtained a high school or GED diploma. Indeed, NFP outcomes involves maternal and child’s development education, referral and follow ups. Also, the program encourages breastfeeding, immunization updates developmental screenings. It has reduced smoking during pregnancy by 16.9% as well as prematurity rate by 4.5 %. (Michalopoulos, Lee, Duggan, Lundquist, Tso, Crowne, Burrell, Somers, Filene, & Knox, 2015).

The purpose of the WIC Program is to provide food assistance each month to the participants that are eligible. It helps pregnant women, new mothers, and young children eat well and stay healthy. WIC is also a short-term intervention program designed to influence lifetime nutrition and health behaviors in a targeted, high-risk population.

The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CN) is one of the many Native American tribes that place a great emphasis on health care. There are noticeable efforts and investments in improving the health care system in the Cherokee Nation. Through the building of health care centers, launching health programs, and individually engaged tribal members in the health field, the Cherokee Nation is striving to improve the overall health care of their people.

There were some limitations to the research on this topic; a great deal of the information seemed to be a replication of other studies. The research showed a lot of reasons why people were not enrolling; however, the study claims that WIC works with little to no comparative data to differentiate participants from nonparticipants. There are some ongoing research efforts to come up with the answer on how to increase WIC enrollment.

included. Third, mothers with multiple births were included as a single observation. Fourth, only mothers whose survey child is 18 months of age or less at the time of assessment were included. They excluded mothers of infants older than 18 months because they could not confirm their prenatal WIC participation status due to the structure of the survey. Fifth, only observations with complete information for all relevant variables were included. Sixth, only mothers who are