My kids have WIC because they've got Medicaid due to their health issues. Acorn's WIC gets us Boost Kid Essentials 1.5, a specialty formula to make up extra calories & nutrition he doesn't get from regular food with his oral aversions and typical 3-year-old picky nature. It also gets us some supplemental foods for him, like bread and milk (which he drinks a lot of) and juice and peanut butter and cheese. Leaf gets some baby food (which she's not ready for, but we're stockpiling for blenderized diet use) and since she's getting breastmilk only right now, they provide some supplemental foods for me instead.
One of the things we have to do for WIC is online nutrition courses. One thing in the lesson I did today stuck out to me - it said:
Babies and toddlers WILL eat if they are hungry.
Sigh. No, not all of them will. Acorn wouldn't. Leaf can't. I know plenty of kids who don't eat, who would starve given the opportunity. And I know kids who would likely get sick, or even die if they did eat orally. We've heard it many times, but this one just irks me, because it's so clearly not true, from someone who is "teaching" nutrition to families of "at-risk" kids.
But it's not just eating that not every kid does.
We watched a potty training video that has a popular little red furry character as the child learning to use the potty. They say that all children learn to use the potty...and yet I know young adults who are still in diapers. (and this one is a sore spot right now, since we're in the midst of a potty training strike with Acorn).
Even in an online moms group I belong to, when discussing possible gifts for a certain age group, one mom said she'd never met a kid that didn't like playdoh. Clearly she's wrong - she's met Acorn, and he can't stand playdoh - but I'm betting he's not the only kid she's met who thinks it's disgusting.
I really wish people were less emphatic about knowing that every kid does these things - it'd make the places where my kid isn't typical stand out so much less.
But it's not just eating that not every kid does.
We watched a potty training video that has a popular little red furry character as the child learning to use the potty. They say that all children learn to use the potty...and yet I know young adults who are still in diapers. (and this one is a sore spot right now, since we're in the midst of a potty training strike with Acorn).
Even in an online moms group I belong to, when discussing possible gifts for a certain age group, one mom said she'd never met a kid that didn't like playdoh. Clearly she's wrong - she's met Acorn, and he can't stand playdoh - but I'm betting he's not the only kid she's met who thinks it's disgusting.
I really wish people were less emphatic about knowing that every kid does these things - it'd make the places where my kid isn't typical stand out so much less.
It is very sad that this misinformation would be on a WIC website.
ReplyDeleteEliza is almost 6 and still gets about 70% of her nutrition from protein fortified milk. If I had a buck for every time some one (even therapists and social workers) insisted that Eliza would eat actual food if I simply withheld her formula/milk I would be very wealthy :) I know that most people mean well, but they just don't get it at all.
And the playdoh ... one of Eliza's favorite tricks was when a new OT would present her with playdoh and try to get her to touch it was to vomit on the therapist. Usually stopped them from trying that again :)
Cheerios and Playdoh are not the modern miracles some believe them to be.
Most likely the things that "every kid will do" work for 75% of them, at best.
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