I’m late in the game as usual, so several someone’s have likely answered this, but WIC is for women who are pregnant also, from the time they get pregnant. And they qualify as a “1” right up until they bring the little one home.
There used to be a diapers company that had made sure to have the “diapers in hospitals” market cornered, in Spain. That way by the time the moms left the hospital with their newborn, they had the idea that That was The diapers brand. The hospital uses it so it must be best, right? No, they merely drop their prices for hospitals to be the cheapest… the cheapest if you’re a hospital, of course, not if you’re a private citizen.
(I don’t know if it’s the situation any more, this was when Dad worked as a hospital’s Purchasing Manager, 1985-1998)
Well, of course. But my entire point was that the majority of those hardworking, pressed for time moms are also having to work with a budget, and might not be able to give themselves the luxury of that convenience, because they have to pay for it out of their own pocket.
Again, of course. I have said several times in this thread that I fully support WIC as a program.
I never said that WIC recipients were lazy welfare moms.
Just jumping in (again) to say I was given RTF formula in the hospital, and sent home with a ton of it. I also got powdered, and I received coupons for both.
Also, I want to reiterate that I don’t know for a fact that the formula companies are part of a vast conspiracy to sell RTF to the states. When I was receiving WIC (and this was like 7 years ago) and I took my son to the pediatrician, he asked me how I was feeding my son. When I told him he said something like, “Oh are you on WIC? They have a contract with the state to sell them formula for the program, and it’s always set up so they sell the most expensive stuff.” But, for all I know, he heard the rumor somewhere else.
It makes a certain amount of sense to me; with the pick up locations I always assumed they must have a contract with the various companies to deal in bulk. I would think (hope) that the state would try to get the cheapest stuff, but maybe with concerns about sterile conditions and clean water and whatnot, they decided to go with the ready to feed stuff. I do live in Mississippi, and in some parts of the state these would be pretty valid concerns. Or maybe the formula companies realized they could make a killing off a government program; it wouldn’t be the first time that happened.
Anyway, I don’t want anyone to begin to think this is some sort of proven fact based on my posts, because I just don’t know. 
Well, good for you.
I have absolutely no idea how much money they make. How would I even begin to know that? What I know about most of them is this: How many kids they have, what kind of car they drive, and what kind of bottles, formula, diapers, etc. they tend to use, if I happen to notice. Basically, only things I can observe at daycare. Some of them I know are receiving subsidies to pay for the daycare, as well as being on WIC (both of these pieces of info I know from them telling me, and some haven’t mentioned whether they get the daycare subsidy). I would never in a million years ask someone how much money they make.
I’m confused by this point…how is it costing us the same amount of money if they are getting it free? From what I have figured out here in this thread, there are two ways WIC provides formula…one, simply giving it away (either at a drop spot, or in the form of vouchers to use at the supermarket). In these cases, you get exactly what they have at the drop spot, or what it says on the voucher…no choices to the customer, and it’s completely free. Two, you get “money,” similar to food stamps, and you use them to pay for it. If you want a more expensive formula, and the stamps don’t cover the price, you make it up out of your own cash. In neither of these scenarios are they paying the same price as a non-WIC recipient would.
That’s fair enough.
Dang. I’ve never gotten the RTF stuff. I must be unlucky.
Oh, I know you weren’t making a definitive statement. I was just throwing out my thoughts on it.
I’m guessing that your first theory is right…the government obviously wants to get the best price, but they need to have the RTF stuff for the people who are medically indicated for it. So, that’s the deal the work out with the formula companies. Whether or not the formula companies get a benefit from it, too, is anyone’s guess, but it wouldn’t surprise me, either.
Noted! 
Thank you.
Yep, that’s why below I mentioned that we simply can’t know this information and as you pointed out it isn’t our place to ask but how do we form informed opinions if we don’t have the information?
I do realize this was a rant though but you have a reasoned argument that is worth discussing.
They are if you consider WIC part of their income then they’re not getting the milk for free. They pay the same as you do for the milk but their income base includes free income which you have agreed they should be able to get. That’s why I said if the free money makes their income higher than yours and you don’t qualify for the service I could see your point. That could be viewed as messed up and while I wouldn’t care much myself I’d agree with this point objectively .
Thanks.
Pay $12.95 and she can chip in the extra $2. 
This is interesting: I thought WIC had a higher income cutoff than other programs, but at least for NYS, you also have to be on Medicaid, be Head Start, have Food Stamps, or have Free Lunch Program. But 185% of the poverty line is certainly not dirt poor; it leaves a little wiggle room for choosing to spring for the ready-made.
–gigi, still reeling from Sarahfeena’s potty mouth
Oh, fuck off, all of you! :eek: :eek:
LOL. Actually, I wouldn’t even be able to do that… I breastfed.
You’d think that 185% of the poverty line isn’t all that bad, but trust me… it is. Depending on where you live, especially. I don’t even live in a particularly high-cost area, nor do I pay rent. And there is very, very little wiggle room.
Granted, there would be the $2 lying around, though.
That’s weird about NYS, though… the WIC program I’m in grants you automatic WIC if you’re on medicaid or food stamps (since their income limits are much lower), but doesn’t cut you off if you’re not.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that 185% of a crazy-low poverty line is anything to write home about, or to mimimize the stress of living on that. It’s just nice that they do sometimes go above that line and continue offering benefits.
The family size of one might also apply for kids in foster care or orphanages.
Both sets of parent are under that struggle. The WIC ones and the ones in your category. And the ones in your category would still have to make or not make that choice regardless of whether WIC users chose more convenient forms of WIC or not.
It doesn’t somehow affect your budget if they choose to spend their WIC checks on a more convenient style or size of formula (and from what I remember and as others have explained the checks very specifically spell out what a person can get with them down to type and size). IIRC, the checks were only about 20-30 something a month.
Despite several other dopers, some with experiences with “the system” explaining it to you, you don’t seem to be understanding or accepting that this it is within those women’s rights to decide what they will do regarding their OWN household budgets. And that their budget choices in no way affect what you can, or can’t do with yours.
I know you did. But you seem to be completely missing the POV of some of the users of the program. My describing my experience was to attempt to illustrate to you that those women that you know at your daycare may have circumstances that you aren’t fully cognizant of, circumstances that don’t necessarily mean that they’re being “wasteful” or getting luxuries above and beyond what you get.
And I didn’t say you did. But sometimes people can tend to lump all of one “sort” into one category and not understand the difference. And as I said to you, I can understand, since the lazy baby-poppin’ welfare queen type DOES exist, that it can be irritating to those of us who are (were, luckily my short term struggle paid off and I’m finally "okay) struggling to make ends meet and watch those types sail through life.
I didn’t see this in your OP, but do you work at the daycare by any chance? Or volunteer there for parts of the week? Because if you don’t, I am curious to know how you know what kinds of bottles, formula and diapers the other moms use?
It’s been a long time since I’ve done pickups and drop offs at a daycare of my kids, but I don’t remember there being a lot of opportunity to observe the contents of the other mom’s diaper bags.
Heh. I haven’t made it through the whole thread, just checked this last page to see what y’all were still yammering about. But yeah, I’ll confirm this! I had to do a radical re-write of the **Sarahfeena **in my head - y’know, the sweet little blond-or-is-it-graying suburban mom who spends a lot of time volunteering in the library wearing twin sets and baking cookies from scratch for the school bake sale.
The real one is dark haired and shockingly down to earth, and wears little black leather bracelets! I strongly suspect she’s even been out drinking a night or two in her life. :eek:
But she does have a spotless Mom Car, in which she drove me at least an hour out of her way so I wouldn’t have to take the El home at 2 AM, for which I was very, very grateful.
Interesting. And admirable! I’ve never had a spotless car since I’ve been a mom. (well maybe for 10 minutes once a year, but …)
There weren’t even any Cheerios crumbs in the kid’s carseat! Suspicious, that was… :dubious:
Sick even!
Look, I never said it wasn’t within someone’s “rights” to do so. I believe I am within my “rights” to be annoyed by it, though. And it’s not just because of the fact that they are on WIC. I see a lot of people complaining all the time about budgets being tight and having a hard time being able to afford such and such a necessity, but they still manage to load themselves up with luxury items and convenience products.
I have acknowleged this several times, that I now understand that there are reasons external to the recipient of the program as to why they may be using the more expensive products.
OK, now we’re getting somewhere. Those types bug me, too. That’s exactly what I’m trying to say. And you don’t know which types these folks I’m referring to are.
I think I’ve gone over this a couple of times, as well. It’s a very small daycare. We don’t do the diaper bag thing…we all keep supplies there. When I walk into the kitchen every morning (it’s an in-home daycare), the bottles & formula are all out on the counter being prepared. I see the babies being fed…sometimes when things get busy and I happen to be there, I might pick up a crying baby & his bottle and feed him myself. I have two kids there, and one is a potty-training toddler, so sometimes it takes a good 20 minutes or longer to wait for the older one to finish her snack, take her to the bathroom, gather their stuff up and get out the door when I pick up. It’s not like I’m taking notes, but it’s not hard to observe what’s going on without really trying to.