Children’s Diets and WIC
Victor
Oliveira and Katherine
Ralston
About a quarter of U.S. children
ages 1-4 participate in the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants,
and Children (WIC). WIC provides low-income
women, infants, and children with supplemental foods,
along with nutrition education and health care referrals.
WIC foods are high in five target nutrients—protein,
iron, vitamins A and C, and calcium—that were
lacking in the diets of low-income mothers and young
children in the early 1970s when the program was
created. Included in the children’s package
of WIC foods are low-sugar cereal, fruit and vegetable
juices, eggs, milk, cheese, peanut butter, and dried
beans or peas.
WIC food packages have remained
basically unchanged since the program’s beginning.
Meanwhile, food consumption patterns and dietary
standards have changed and the prevalence of overweight
and obesity have increased. USDA is in the process
of redesigning WIC food packages in response to
these changes (a proposed rule on the food packages
is expected to be published sometime this year).
Two recent ERS publications have analyzed the nutrient
intakes of children and WIC’s effect on food
choices to help inform USDA’s decisions on
possible changes to the packages.
An ERS study found that participating
in WIC affects children’s consumption of some
foods but not of others—an important first
step in considering changes to the package. WIC
children drank more WIC-approved juice and fewer
other nonmilk beverages, such as soft drinks, than
did eligible nonparticipating children and children
from higher income families. WIC children also ate
more WIC-approved cereal. Participation in WIC had
little or no association with greater consumption
of milk, cheese, peanut butter, and beans. Including
these foods in the package may not influence consumption
directly, but the value of the foods represents
a savings in food spending for low-income households
that might allow them to purchase more of other
foods. Although WIC children consumed significantly
more calories from WIC foods than did eligible nonparticipating
children, the difference in total calories consumed
was not significant. These results suggest that
WIC foods replace non-WIC foods in the diets of
participating children rather than adding to their
food consumption.
Research sponsored by ERS used
Dietary Reference Intakes—the new, revised
dietary standards developed by the National Academy
of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine—to
assess the intake of a variety of nutrients by WIC
children as well as children not participating in
the program. The studies found that protein, calcium,
and vitamins A and C are no longer lacking in the
diets of preschool children, but iron blood-level
indicators are still low for some children. In addition,
new concerns have emerged. For example, some children
are consuming too many calories but not enough vitamin
E and fiber, and some are not getting the recommended
balance of fat, carbohydrates, and protein.
This
finding is drawn from . . . |
| Children’s
Consumption of WIC-Approved Foods,
by Victor Oliveira and Ram Chandran, FANRR-44,
USDA, Economic Research Service, February
2005.
Nutrient
Adequacy of Children Participating in WIC,
by Katherine Ralston, EB-8, USDA, Economic
Research Service, April 2006.
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