Dennis Cooley: WIC nutrition program is a source of pride

As a pediatrician practicing in Topeka, I’m proud of our state’s many investments in the health and well-being of our children. Yet one of our proudest accomplishments is also one of our best-kept secrets: Nearly 71,000 young children and mothers are benefiting from the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC. WIC serves nutritionally at-risk pregnant women and children and improves birth outcomes, supports breast-feeding, and increases immunization rates.

Unfortunately, recent comments by some Sedgwick County leaders have led to misconceptions about the program (Oct. 8 Eagle). I care for children enrolled in WIC, and I understand firsthand just how essential the program is to my young patients and their families.

WIC is funded entirely by federal dollars, with no matching state money. Although the funding is federal, the program is a partnership among federal, state and local governments that encourages states and local communities to use innovative approaches for the management of their WIC programs.

Here’s one example: In a collaboration with the state’s Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality, WIC centers throughout Kansas are working to reduce and eliminate cigarette smoking among pregnant women and thus protect developing and newborn babies from exposure. All WIC offices across the state screen and refer women to any available services that support smoking cessation. Many times the staff of smoking cessation programs come to WIC clinics to connect with and support women who have set a goal to stop smoking.

The WIC program provides important nutritional education to families to develop healthy food habits. In addition to empowering families to make healthy eating habits, mothers, infants and children in WIC receive supplemental food packages that are selected for their nutritional value to promote good health. They include fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy and whole-grain foods.

WIC is also the largest public breast-feeding promotion program in our country. And it has been dramatically successful, especially in Kansas. In 1998, 55 percent of WIC mothers in our state breast-fed. By 2012 it had risen to 74 percent.

Why is this so important? As a pediatrician with 35 years of experience caring for children, I know that from a nutritional standpoint, there is no better food for infants than breast milk. Breast-fed infants have fewer respiratory, gastrointestinal and ear infections than their formula-fed counterparts. There is mounting evidence that breast-fed infants also have lower obesity rates.

How successful has WIC been? Data shows that WIC mothers have better birth outcomes, including fewer babies born at low birth weights. Participants in WIC also have better access to prenatal care, and because preterm births cost the United States more than $26 billion a year, that means real savings and real improvements to child health.

The WIC program in our communities in Kansas has played a vital role in promoting and improving the health of our women, infants and children. WIC should not be one of our state’s best-kept secrets; it should be a source of pride in our community.

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Dennis Cooley: WIC nutrition program is a source of pride."