Abstract: Few studies examined the impact of maternal socioeconomic status and of its combined effects with environmental exposures on birthweight. Our goal was to examine the impact of maternal homelessness (mothers ever homeless or who lived in shelters during pregnancy) and participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) during […]
This report card examines children’ weight over time. We looked at almost 3,000 infants and toddlers from low-income families who started life in a healthy state – born at a healthy birth weight and at term. Most children remained at a healthy weight at both visits (on average 1 year apart). Children with an unhealthy […]
What if… the Unites States decided to proactively alleviate food insecurity? Finally, after years of sluggish, uncertain growth following the Great Recession, the United States economy appears to have surged in 2015. Two recently released annual reports from the USDA on household food security and the Census Bureau on income, poverty and health insurance tell […]
About the What If? Series Through the What If Project, Children’s HealthWatch is providing real and specific models of better policy futures, working toward our vision of a future where all children’s basic needs are met, sustaining their health and enabling them to reach their potential. For this brief, Children’s HealthWatch asked, “What if we optimized […]
Health and special education-related costs of food insecurity for households with young children in the US were estimated to total more than $1.2 billion in 2015 dollars. The persistently high prevalence of food insecurity continues to drain resources from families, communities, and the U.S. economy. Key policy changes in a variety of areas could alleviate hardships and reduce costs, ultimately improving the future prosperity of all people in the US. Social infrastructures, including nutrition assistance programs and working-family tax credits, provide vital resources for reducing food insecurity and saving money.
Every five years Congress reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act, which is designed to meet the nutritional needs of children from the prenatal period through adolescence. The Act includes the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), the National School Lunch and National School Breakfast […]
Emily, a mother and member of Witnesses to Hunger, whose son benefited from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) from birth to age five, passionately discusses the ways in which WIC enabled her to purchase Lactaid milk for her son who is lactose intolerant; his milk costs twice the price […]
By virtue of America’s disjointed patchwork of social safety net programs, many families who are eligible for one public assistance program are often eligible for others as well. While we know combining enrollment in multiple programs helps protect low-income families from adverse health outcomes, many families who are eligible for multiple programs are currently not enrolled in […]
When I first met Children HealthWatch’s founder Dr. Frank, I asked her what horrible disease was causing “failure to thrive” in the children she saw in her clinic—some crazy intestinal disease? I was appalled by her answer then and still am now—that her patients do not have access to enough nutritious food to keep them […]
This brief examines the health impacts of dropping out of WIC and reasons families report becoming disconnected from the program in Minnesota