the essence

When I was born, 26 years ago, my mom was the only breast feeding mom in the hospital. Fast forward to 2009 and the war cry the past few years has been "breast is best" and we've seen a huge shift in the promotion of breast feeding. Women have "nurse-ins" at places like airports to support the freedom to breast feed their babies in public and many states actually have laws protecting breast feeding moms and prohibiting store owners and such from asking you to leave their premises or even to cover up.

WIC, which stands for "Women Infants and Children," is a federally funded program designed to provide nutritional and health resources for financially struggling families. They are now joining the breast feeding promotional movement and have changed their food package being offered to new moms.

The new package is mandated for all states and provides allotment for fresh fruits, vegetables, baby foods and formula. If a women chooses the breast feeding package she will not receive any baby formula at all. If a women chooses a partial breast feeding or total formula feeding package she will receive 13% less formula than previously provided through WIC. The whole idea is to promote breast feeding as a healthier and more cost-effective option for moms.

Under the new WIC program women may still need to purchase some formula on their own. In doing so, they should realize that all formula must meet the same FDA regulations, therefore the less-expensive generic brands are on par with the expensive brands for quality and no nutritional reason can be found to purchase a name brand over a generic.