Good nutrition provides a good start to life

Amanda Howell was 19, single and pregnant when her mother steered her to WIC, the Women, Infants and Children program at the Panhandle Health District.

"I was living with my mom and WIC was the only outlet that would help me," Amanda says. "I could get milk, cheese, eggs, nutrition information, guidelines on how my baby should develop. It was all new to me."

That was more than seven years ago. Now Amanda is married with three children - Devon, 7, Austin, 5, and Hailey, 3. WIC has guided Amanda through three pregnancies and worked with her to feed her children nutritious foods to help them develop - all at no cost to Amanda.

"It's a good program," she says, as Devon shows off his growing biceps after a WIC appointment.

WIC is a nationwide, federally-funded nutrition program for women who are pregnant, breastfeeding for up to 12 months or have had a baby in the last six months. It's also for infants and children up to age 5. In the five northern counties, WIC operates through the Panhandle Health District (PHD). Families living at or below 185 percent of the U.S. poverty level are eligible for WIC services.

More than 5,100 women and children participate in PHD's WIC services each month and more than 3,000 of them live in Kootenai County.

WIC provides vouchers for nutritious food, nutrition counseling, the services of registered dietitians, breastfeeding peer counselors, community resources and more. At Amanda's first visit, WIC staff checked her weight, height and her iron status.

The information went into a computer program that plotted Amanda's progress over time and showed if her health was at risk. About two-thirds of WIC clients are considered high risk. Clients that are high risk work with the WIC registered dietitians.

Amanda had no interest in breastfeeding her first baby, but WIC changed her mind.

"I wanted no part of it," she says, laughing. "But after they told me about the nutritional value, I wanted to breastfeed."

WIC's peer counselors provide prenatal breastfeeding classes and contact mothers the first week after their babies are born and weekly for the first month. Counselors stay in contact with new mothers for months to help breastfeeding work and solve problems.

After mothers stop breastfeeding, they can continue in WIC for their children. They receive food vouchers and nutrition education for growing children. WIC weighs and measures the children and checks their iron regularly.

Dietitians work with many infants and children with feeding problems including tube feedings, diseases such as leukemia, allergies and more.

Amanda had little interest in nutrition when she started with WIC. Now she grows her own vegetables with her husband, who's a third generation farmer.

"I've learned so much," she says. "As a family, we plant, weed and harvest. The kids know their food comes from the seeds we put in the ground. WIC is a big part of that."

For more information on PHD's WIC program, visit www.phd1.idaho.gov and click on WIC at the end of the green menu.

Cynthia Taggart is the public information officer for the Panhandle Health District. She can be reached at ctaggart@phd1.idaho.gov.