Report: WIC Mothers Breast-Feed Less
By LIBBY QUAID (AP Food and Farm Writer)
 From Associated Press
February 08, 2006 7:21 PM EST

WASHINGTON - Breast-feeding is less common among mothers who get federal
help from the Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC,
congressional investigators said Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office didn't criticize WIC, which
distributes free formula but also heavily promotes breast-feeding. Even
outside the WIC program, breast-feeding in the United States fell short
of federal goals, the report said.

Instead, investigators said limits are needed on advertising by infant
formula companies. Companies have used the WIC name and logo to market
formula despite federal restrictions on their use, according to the report.

Babies who are breast-fed are less likely to develop diabetes, asthma
and other health problems. Mothers get benefits, too; breast-feeding
moms are considered less likely to get certain types of cancer.

Some are concerned that WIC discourages breast-feeding by giving free
formula to mothers, the report said.

WIC officials countered that breast-feeding is less common among those
with lower incomes and less education - the women getting help from WIC.

A lawmaker who asked for the report, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said the
findings are not surprising, "given the challenges they face when they
return to the workplace."

"We can and must do more to make it easier, especially for low-income
mothers, to breast-feed," Harkin said.

The idea that WIC moms can breast-feed while working is "sort of an
elitist concept," said Geraldine Henchy, nutritionist for the Food
Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group.

"Many of them are employed in jobs where they barely get bathroom
breaks," Henchy said. "They're not going to be able to pump. They're not
going to be able to breast-feed."

Nearly half the babies born in the U.S. get help from WIC, which is run
by the Agriculture Department and provides food and formula to mothers
and young children.

Among WIC participants, the rate of infants who are exclusively
breast-fed at six months of age is 10 percent, the report said. The rate
is 22 percent among non-WIC participants, according to the report.

Marketing of infant formula is widespread and is increasing, the report
said. For example, most hospitals give new mothers "discharge packs"
containing free formula, and an Agriculture Department study showed that
86 percent of WIC mothers received those discharge packs.

At least two states, Massachusetts and New York, limit the distribution
of free formula through discharge packs, GAO said.

State agencies help run the WIC program, and they buy formula through
contracts with companies. Most of those contracts don't follow the
federal restrictions against using the WIC name and logo in advertising,
GAO said.

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