Wic - Page 3

[JamesMama]

My SIL ff's and is on WIC. She only got her WIC to like 3 or 4 months PP and only got 4 gallons of milk and 2 things of juice, 1 thing of PB and 1 thing of eggs. No cheese, no carrots, no beans.

I'd have to get my WIC book but we're bf'ing and I'm pretty sure I get 5 or 6 gallons of milk, 2lbs of cheese, 1 thing of pb, 1lb of beans, a bunch of tuna, 2lbs of carrots, 2 doz eggs and 36oz of cereal, I get all that clear up to a year.

Plus I got a free manual breastpump (Medela) and at 6 months I got a huge water bottle that says something about "Breast is Best" or "Breastfeeding Mom" or something like that.

It'd be nice to get the extra that I'm not spending in formula (because I highly doubt my milk, juice, eggs, cheese and cereal cost as much as 9 cans of formula a month) in extra food stamps, thats a neat idea...where I could buy something healthy like fresh fruits and veggies or something...IIRC we don't get farmers market tickets here.

[ramama]

I don't think that we can lump all WIC offices together, nor all WIC recipients. Geographical location matters a lot too. In a state I lived in recently, 75% of all families qualified for WIC. It's not all about laziness, sometimes needing WIC assistance is about the inability of an area to support gainful employment.

Personally, I qualified for WIC but after going to their office and such, decided not to do it. I was pregnant with my 2nd and BFing my 1st and just didn't need the hassle. Plus, my DH is a 100% disabled veteran on disability and he didn't really want to take anything else from the government.

I'm not really on the boat with giving BFing mothers incentives for continuing to BF. To me, BFing is not exemplary, it's normal. A mother does not need to be rewarded for doing what's normal. Perhaps a *genuine* attitude of support and encouragement (although BFing is biologically normal, it certainly isn't always easy). Perhaps a room to meet with BFing families where there are no signs of formula advertising, no logos, just one little room dedicated to BFing.

I don't think that reward systems work. Additionally, FFing mothers are not being "rewarded" with formula, they're just being provided with formula.

[kriket]

I think the poster that said FF moms cost more meant that formula costs more thus, it must cost them more to support FF moms. I can see that logic, I don't know if it's true or not.

I don't think I have ever seen a WIC ad. I have seen ones about establishing paternity.

I've heard the comment about X amount of this or that not being enough. I have heard this a lot. WIC is intended to be help not to completely fulfill your needs. When I hear people in the grocery saying how $200+ a month in foodstamps isn't enough for their family I always cringe. We make ends meet on $20 a week per person in my house. Again, no children, so our situation is not the same, but damn. These services are help thats the bottom line.

I've always said that when I'm a millionaire I am going to run a clinic on how to eat. I am always amazed how many people have entered adulthood with no idea how to prepare food for their family and stay in their budget. It takes some planning and culinary creativity, but is doable.

[Mama Poot]

Originally Posted by 70toes

We're on WIC and I agree, it's hard. That's not the type of food I want to serve my kids and for my DH to think he's not able to support his family working 48 hrs a week is even worse. BUT we do it because any food is better than no food. You're right, I do feel like they almost encourage formula, but they've always been very supportive of breastfeeding, although sometimes I feel like I'm teaching them a thing or two about it! LOL The only hurdles we've had to cross have been lack of proof of my daughter's birth. They wanted something from the hospital, but we home birth, so they said an immunization card would work, but we don't vaccinate. Soooo... I'm not sure what to do. The only thing I can come up with is to give them a copy of the notorized form I had to send into the state to prove her birth. Hopefully that will be enough.

You can tell them not to give you the stuff you don't like. I didn't want to get juice anymore, so I told them we don't drink it and to give us more of other things instead. I also like that we can get natural peanut butter and don't have to get the crappy hydrogenated stuff.

Your midwife can just type up a letter saying she attended the birth and sign it-at least that's all they wanted at my local job and family services office, and they're normally a lot pickier about paperwork! I would hope this would suffice for WIC as well. As for the vaccinations, we have signed and notarized exemption forms that we can make copies of whenever someone requests vax cards or what have you.

[SeekingSerenity]

Originally Posted by leighi123

I took him back at 9 months (still no solids) and his iron was fine, but they still got mad at me and said to give him that nasty gerber cereal - I said it was like glue and when I did offer him solids it would be fruit/veggies first. She said I must have made it wrong (um I never even got any - I wouldnt feed my ds anything that I wouldnt eat myself)

I am certainly not advocating a lie in order to "get more" from the system, but if you don't feel like arguing with "Certified Nutritionists" who think they are so much more knowledgable than you, sometimes it's easier to just say "okay" when they advise you to feed the cereal or something... you don't have to do it and it doesn't change your benefits. I hate lying - but I also got very tired of defending myself every single time I went to the WIC clinic (when they were asking about things like vaxes).

Originally Posted by leighi123

Oh and my breastpump died (ds pulled it onto the floor) and we called to see If we could get a WIC one and they said they didnt have any because they didnt have enough 'demand' for breatpumps - yeah because everyone gets formula duh.

I think it depends more upon the funding of that specific WIC clinic as to whether or not they have availability for that type of thing.

Originally Posted by Mandynee22

I have a quick question about that tho it doesn't have anything to do with breastfeeding...
Is WIC advertised like crazy where everyone lives or is that just here?
It's on TV, on the radio, at Drs offices, the hospital etc etcDoes it depend on which areas have more available funding?

I've only seen posters or fliers in low-income areas, in low-cost clinics or community hospitals.

Originally Posted by Gilda86

They don't do a thing to make breastfeeding easier and support is minimal, and then they make FF mothers grovel and beg for formula while chastising them for not breastfeeding.

I never had to grovel and beg for formula. In fact, back in the days when I got it, it was pushed on me. "Are you sure you don't want to opt for the FF checks? You never know how long this BFing thing is going to last."

Originally Posted by lovermont

It's all well and good for everyone to be able to share their compliments and complaints about WIC on this thread but I'd like to take it a step further and contact the "powers that be" so to speak to implement change (hopefully).

I've tried that in terms of making them change the quality of foods they offered... here in Texas, they took away almost all of the good, unsweetened cereals and replaced them with things like "Dora the Explorer" cereal and sugar-coated garbage. Then they disallowed juices that were 100% but blended (like white grape-raspberry), so essentially you can choose from 3 types of juice (which gets a little old). And they'd never let you get natural peanut butter, only the kind with tons of added corn syrup and sugar.

I contacted the main offices in Austin to try and see what could be done about this. Allow organic cereals or at least a wider variety of unsweetened ones (instead of just Cheerios, Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies) and definitely allow natural peanut butter. More vegetables, not just carrots and not just for nursing moms.

I was utterly blown off. Told to be grateful for what I did get and that their program was about nutritional supplementation and they felt they did an adequate job of providing that. So, good luck to all of you who feel you can get something like WIC's policy on breastfeeding changed - I couldn't even get their policy on sugar-sweetened peanut butter changed. Maybe someone knows something I don't.

Originally Posted by Gilda86

I say if a person makes a statement that bold, he or she should be able to back it up.

Most of us don't have the actual documentation to back that up. I have been on WIC for FF and also for BF, so I can tell you from personal experience that they spend more on FF benefits simply on the cost of formula alone. For the first 6 months, they buy you 8 cans of formula AND allow 6 gallons of milk, 2 pounds of cheese, 2 dozen eggs, 1 pound of beans or 1 jar of peanut butter and 4 cans of juice for the mom. Then they take out the mom's food but start allowing cereal and juice for the baby. For BFing moms, you get the food plus 2 pounds of carrots and 4 cans of tuna for a year, and baby gets infant cereal and juice starting at either 4 or 6 months. The formula alone is over $100 a month extra (I don't actually know the formula price because it's been so long since I FF my kids, back then formula was only about $10 a can).

I don't have documentation. But I've done both programs. I KNOW they spent more on my FF kids than my BF ones. It might be a bold claim but multiplied over however many thousands of WIC recipients there are in each state, I think it's probably a safe assumption that it's a true claim.

[ccohenou]

Originally Posted by katie&micah

In my particular area (which is very low income), I would say that 1/3 of the women who come in fit the "welfare queen" category. The majority of the women I meet are people that seem to be taking the assistance because they need it, rather than because they're looking for another way to get a free ride.

So, what do you mean by a "welfare queen"? How do you know that these people you see are welfare queens? Are they wearing a $60 sling? Babies wearing pedipeds? Or is it some other...personal characteristic? If they are there getting checks, they apparently qualify for benefits just like everyone else there. I don't see how you would know that they were committing fraud, or why you would assume so.

[RoadWorkAhead]

Yeah that Cassidy!

As for groveling, it depends on whether you are taking a formula that they get subsidized by bidding out to companies (in fla, nestle formulas) or not. I grovel to get DD's formula covered. Thankfully, her g-tube made it more of a non-issue, but must go in and pick it up in person every month, must resubmit paperwork proving need every 6 months, and then theres the calls to several people, the number of times my office "forgot" to order her formula,etc. So yes, some of us grovel (Admittedly, happily....I'm thrilled that we can get 10 cans of 35$/can formula free each month because we couldn't cover it OOP just yet...soon though I hope!!). The ones not groveling are those who choose to FF who can use a normal contract formula. When I needed to supplement DS from 4-6 months while working, I asked about adding formula as you can do sevreal "partial" packages that would have covered the formula we needed (2-3 cans/mo) except my DS can't tolerate Good Start and they're closest contract formula to what he did tolerate had added corn syrup (above and beyond normal formula levels) which would have led to premature weaning) but that was okay and fine and dandy right?? So I sucked it up and bought enough to make up the difference in what I could pump and what he needed until school was out. BUt it was frustrating that something like early weaning due to sweetened milk wasn't a concern of the nutritionist.

[TCMoulton]

Originally Posted by kriket

There are hardworking people out there who need a little bit of help and some people feel they are being pushed out of the system by lazy mamas who are looking for a free ride

Wow. So rude and inappropriate.

[kriket]

Originally Posted by TCMoulton

Wow. So rude and inappropriate.

it really wasn't intended that way, I know that everyone on WIC isn't a "lazy mama" or "welfare-queen" but they do exist. Especially (it seems) where I live. It's reality.

[TCMoulton]

Originally Posted by kriket

it really wasn't intended that way, I know that everyone on WIC isn't a "lazy mama" or "welfare-queen" but they do exist. Especially (it seems) where I live. It's reality.

Well the way you worded made it seem that way. Honestly, I have never heard a single story of a BF WIC mama getting pushed out of the system because of an overload of FF mamas.

[ewp11100]

I don't have time to read the whole tread, so I might be repeating but. My WIC in Maryland got a new grant and for every 3 months your still bf you get a BRAVADO nursing bra. H#LL yeah! I was happy with that. I can't afford nursing bras much less BRAVADO. My BFF's mom an IBCLC now runs the breastfeeding/LC/peer councellor program and has done a famulous job IMO. I have been on WIC in 3 differnet states (MD, PA, WV) and this is the best office. West V. was just scary.

Erin

[Ruthla]

Free bras! Wow!

Sigh. That wouldn't have been much help to me, though, as the only time I wore Bravado I had to special order "one cup size up from the XL++ with an M back". It cost me an extra $5 per bra (13 years ago, it might have gone up since then) but it was well worth it. For a free bra, I probably would have taken the biggest size they had and made do (or sold it on Ebay and used the money to buy a bra that fit. )

[annettemarie]

This thread is closed pending review.