For the past 5 or more years (I can't find the 
exact date online) mothers in the UK who are on 
low incomes have had Healthy Start vouchers which 
they can exchange for a range of foodstuffs: 
fresh/frozen fruit and veg, milk,  including 
infant formula (it used to be that formula or 
regular milk were the only products and in fact 
the vouchers were  known as 'milk tokens').

http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/

Their use is not policed, in that there is no 
compulsion to buy a particular brand of anything. 
You do have to go to shops and stores which have 
signed up to the scheme. I just did a check on my 
own postcode, and there are about 5 shops and 
stores within about 10 minutes walk (I live in an 
urban area). There are no contracts with formula 
manufacturers. The scheme is financed by the tax 
payer.

Healthy Start  Vouchers are worth:

     £3.10 a week if you are pregnant
     £6.20 a week for each baby aged under one
     £3.10 a week for each child aged over one and under four.

Infant formula is roughly £7-£8 a can for a week 
in the UK, so the voucher for a child under one 
would supply most of his formula needs but not 
all.


It is possible that a mother could exchange the 
vouchers for fruit and give her baby cola.

But this is not seen as an issue, and there has 
been no rise (AFAIK) in any reports of this sort 
of thing.

So Laurie's idea - that the mother gets the 
vouchers and exchanges them for her own choice of 
healthy foods - works just fine here.  I think 
this gives autonomy to the mother.

There is an argument that formula should not be 
included on the list at all, and I have some 
sympathy with that - it may happen in time.

I think the really uncomfortable, unethical 
aspect of the WIC programme as I read it here is 
the *link* with the *manufacturers* and the fact 
that the manufacturers would make a huge fuss if 
it was changed says it all.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK


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