Changes in Breastfeeding Among WIC Participants Following Implementation of the New Food Package

In December of 2007, the Federal Register published an Interim Rule establishing revised food packages for participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) that was implemented by states in 2009. We analyze changes in breastfeeding among WIC participants from the period before to period after implementation of the new food package We used linear regression to analyze data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) in 19 states from 2004 to 2010, the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS) in 16 states monthly from January 2007 to October 2010 and the National Immunization Survey (NIS) from all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2004 to 2010 for evidence of an association between time-series patterns of breastfeeding among women or children who participated in WIC and changes in the new food package. Data from all three sources evidenced steady upward trends in ever breastfed infants on WIC during the study period. In neither PRAMS nor the NIS were trends in breastfeeding after implementation of the new food package statistically different from trends in breastfeeding among low-income women not on WIC. We also uncovered no break in monthly breastfeeding rates by birth cohort associated with new food package in the PedNSS. Rates of ever breastfed children are rising nationally but the increase is not associated with changes in WIC’s new food package as evidenced in national and state surveys of postpartum women.