From "Mr. Sikes made me sik":

> if every WIC mom breastfed for just one month it would save the
> "taxpayers"
> 429 million dollars.

This statement provoked considerable thought (and not for the first time
on this subject). I started to wonder just what exactly the current
numbers are, and how they stack up to this kind of debate. I went
surfing on the 'Net and found some interesting information.

From a query for "WIC Budget 1997" at the USDA searchable web site
http://www.usda.gov/fcs/fcssrch.htm
search result number 11 "WIC Program Q and A's" (very informative BTW)
at
http://www.usda.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=293905857+10+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

I found:
Congress appropriated $3.7 billion for WIC in FY 1997, the same as for
FY 1996.
Of the average 6.89 million people who received WIC benefits each month
in FY 1995, 3.5 million were children, 1.8 million were infants, and 1.6
million were women.
For FY 1994, WIC state agencies spent $564 million on infant formula,
after rebate savings totaling $997 million.

So, if no infant formula was purchased at all for the 1.8 million
infants, then WIC agencies would not have spent $564 million after
rebate savings. I assume 1997 figures are even higher.

Then again are the less quantifiable dollar savings (in 1991 dollars) of
$7 saved over the first year of life in *healthcare expenditures* per
breastfed infant (these familes are leigible for MediCaid also), for an
additional presumed savings of  $12.6 million.

"Expiring minds want to know"

Katharine West, BSN, MPH
Sherman Oaks, CA