Question about WIC and allergies

[Delaney21]

One of my friends just found out that her DD is eligible for WIC. Her DD has dairy, soy and peanut allergies and won't eat beans. Is the program going to be useless for her? Can she still get the normal foods and have the other family members use them so then she can use their normal (limited) food budget to get her DD's safe foods? Anyone know how that works? Should she just not tell them about her DD's allergies or is there another way they handle it?

TIA!

[wombatclay]

Well, WIC is run a little differently in each state (and the info provided by an individual office may vary a bit from how it's presented in another office in the same state) so it may be easiest for her to ask the office she plans on using to see if they can tailor the package for her...

That said, I was on WIC for about a year in NY (two years ago). We had the breastfeeding mama package as well as the infant package. I am allergic to fish but still had to "take" the tuna that is included in the breastfeeding package and we don't drink dairy due to lactose intolerance but we still had to "take" the milk included in each package. I asked if we could substitute more beans or cheese for the milk and/or tuna and they said no. They did say that WIC was trying to find a way to customize packages for allergenic participants but it wasn't there yet so maybe this has changed in the past year or so.

In NY at the time you had to get everything listed on your "ticket"... you couldn't decide NOT to get an item if it was part of your package. However, other states let you pick and choose a lot more (and I don't know the current NY guidelines). Although they do say that the food should only be used by the WIC recipient they certainly don't check up as such... so if the rest of the family will eat beans, or tuna, or peanut butter, or eggs, or cheese, or whatever then it is certainly worth it. DH ate a lot of tuna that year. I think mostly they want to make sure the food isn't being re-sold.

And many states now let you use WIC tickets/coupons at farmers markets. Which is very cool. (and around here a number of CSAs have discount memberships for families that are on WIC so that might be worth looking into as well... these specific CSA memberships are only for people on WIC so even if the WIC foods aren't a perfect match for her family it may be worth it if you can then find a discount CSA)

[Ruthla]

If she's got peanut allergies, you may not want peanut butter in the house at all. Fortunately, WIC (at least in the two states I used it in) allowed you to substitute a pound of beans for the jar of peanut butter.

They don't offer any alternatives for milk or egg allergies- unless she's able to tolerate goat's milk in place of the cow's milk. They don't have any way of checking up on who in the household consumes what. When I was on WIC, we always got more milk and juice than the WIC recipients could consume, so other family members would have it as well. When DS was under a year old, the amount of milk they gave just for me was enough for my entire family (2 grade schoolers and a DP.) When both of my daughters were on WIC, there was plenty of milk for all 3 of us, and some spoiled before we could finish it. When just DS was on WIC, we had enough juice for all 3 kids, and didn't finish it up until a year after he graduated from the program!

The eggs and cereal always got polished off though.

[1growingsprout]

In our case my babies needed special formula, low iron, nutrgimuen (sp), our wic office was able to change the wic vouchers to what we needed (even go back to enfamil when they changed to similac) with a rx from the dr and a note. Our dr was very happy to help us but i know many other dr's wont and many wic's wont alter the checks.
if her DD is allergic to the food, and she cant substitute i would still take it, someone in the house can eat it, even if dd doenst like beans, someone can make chili etc. You do get a lot of juice, cereal, cheese, eggs, milk and PB. We are bursting at the seams with juice and PB, some we share with neighbors/friends, some gets donated to the food pantry etc... Wic really helped out when DH was out of work.

[asianyoushi]

i would just call the office and see if they would make a customized package.

i agree if the dd is allergic to peanut butter is probably is not the best idea to even have it in the house.


we are allowed to get the things we want for the month. for example one of ds voucher has milk (whole only) eggs and juice- we will only get the eggs and juice. my family cant tolerate whole milk. 2% is fine so we just make sure we use all of dd's milk vouchers for the month.