>WIC has done more to promote BFing than any other
>"program" or "campaign" in the US.

I have to heartily disagree with this statement.  WIC has only been
promoting breastfeeding for a few years, and still doens't promote it very
much in a lot of places.  La Leche League, on the other hand, has been
promoting and supporting and protecting breastfeeding for 43 years now, and
deserves top honors when it comes to breastfeeding promotion.

>The BFing initiation rates (not sure
>about duration) have increased more significantly among the WIC population
>than any other demographic.

This is a good example of how statistics can be "true" and still be
misleading.  If the breastfeeding initiation rates among middle-class
well-educated white women go from 60% to 70%, this is only a 17% increase.
But if the breastfeeding initiation rates among WIC clients go from 20% to
30%, this is a whopping 50% increase in rates.  In reality, both groups have
increased exactly the same.

And if you had a group where 1% breastfed to begin with and you increased
the breastfeeding rate to 5%, that would be a staggering increase calculated
one way, but only half as much as the rate increases above.

>And you are absolutely right - until WIC is able to get those BF rates up
>and keep them up, the babies need to be fed. [snip] it's
>really easy to forget that infant formula is NOT the worst thing in the
>world for babies to eat!

It may very well be the case, however, that stopping ALL formula handouts
from WIC and spending that money on breastfeeding support would result in a
brief span of time when many infants died, but the end result would be that
everyone would breastfeed (because they couldn't afford formula on their
own) and that the net outcome for children's health would be MUCH MUCH
better than having generation after generation of children grow up on
formula, with all its attendant health problems and IQ deficits.  You can't
measure the impact of WIC formula giveaways only in terms of "X number of
babies who didn't die."  You have to also factor in "Y number of babies who
were sick, throughout their lives, had cognitive impairments, were not
bonded to their moms."  Not to mention all the health costs to the mothers
of not breastfeeding.  It is typical in US culture that we focus only on one
outcome measure and discount that damage done by other measures.

If *I* ran the world, WIC would immediately cease all formula handouts and
put that money into breastfeeding support.  And yes, some babies would die,
but the end result would be better health for children and their mothers.

And I must also throw into the discussion that I find it offensive when
anyone portrays the vast majority of WIC mothers as being ignorant and
careless about their babies' health.  WIC is for POOR PEOPLE, not STUPID
PEOPLE.  Poor does not equal stupid, or even uneducated.  I suspect that it
is the *rare* WIC mom who doesn't want what is best for her baby.  Many WIC
moms choose formula because they are not sure their own milk is sufficient
or best for their baby, and if the nutrition experts on the WIC staff are
giving away formula, along with all their other "healthy" foods (you only
get "healthy foods" with WIC vouchers) then formula must be the most healthy
option.



Kathy Dettwyler, Ph.D., former WIC mom, 1980-81, who, as a graduate student
with an MA, working on my Ph.D., specializing in nutritional anthropology,
had to sit through "education" classes on "fixing formula properly," even
though I was breastfeeding -- thanks to La Leche League...

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