Findings from 10 focus groups with 25 WIC staff and 29 clients suggested that existing materials were time-consuming and unresponsive to client needs, and additional resources were needed to engage children while parents were in session; new delivery formats for nutrition education, including videos and interactive demonstrations focused on child-friendly preparations of WIC foods, were preferred.
The Perinatal Food Group Recall (PFGR) form among Comprehensive Perinatal Health Workers (CPHWs) serving low-income pregnant and postpartum mothers, can facilitate the provision of nutrition counseling among low-income mothers and build capacity among community health workers.
Overall, this study demonstrates that both in-person and online nutrition education were effective in increasing breakfast-related knowledge in WIC participants, reducing breakfast skipping, and improving other breakfast-related behaviors, showing the potential usefulness for online education modalities for future WIC services
This paper reviews federal dietary recommendations and requirements for nutrition programs, packaged food labels and restaurant menus; state regulation of retail environments and child care settings; food companies' self-regulatory options; and directions for future research and policy initiatives.
Support policies that seek to reduce the consumption of fruit juice and promote the consumption of whole fruit by toddlers and young children (eg, child care/preschools) already exposed to juices, including through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), provided that those policies do not have negative nutritional consequences (ie, inadequate total calories, absence of any fruit in the diet) for children without access to fresh fruit.”
In the United States, WIC feeds more than 25% of pregnant women and more than half of children at some point in their first 5 years of life.1 By serving such a large percentage of the population, this program has tremendous potential to influence the country’s dietary patterns.
Excessive fruit juice consumption is associated with increased risk for obesity. Moreover, there is recent scientific evidence that sucrose consumption without the corresponding fiber, as is commonly present in fruit juice, is associated with the metabolic syndrome, liver injury, and obesity.
Higher juice intake at 1 year was associated with higher juice intake, SSB intake, and BMI z-score during early and mid-childhood.
Across the 46 WIC State agencies, real net price decreased by an average 43 percent (or 23 cents per 26 ounces of reconstituted fluid), allaying concerns about increasing real net prices. With lower net prices, combined with declining WIC purchases of infant formula, WIC State agencies paid $107 million less for formula in their new contracts over the course of a year.
Infant formula sales in the US are a competitive and profitable marketplace environment. FDA restrictions on such new formula releases are designed to ensure that there is minimal evidence of risk, but often the evidence for benefit is not established. Some of these products may confuse families relative to the value of breastfeeding or to the value of spending money on more expensive formulas than are medically needed. In other cases, they lead to multiple formula switches over relatively minor symptoms that would best be managed through parental education. They may also pose risks for populations including late preterm infants or infants with other risk factors for poor growth.
