In August, we celebrated National Breastfeeding Month along with countless others across the nation. All year long we focus our efforts on sharing evidence-based breastfeeding education and resources with families and the professionals who support them. You can find a wealth of information on our ADHS breastfeeding support website at GoBreastmilk.org. There, we answer questions [...]
We want to reassure Arizona families that the Arizona Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program will continue to be open and available for them in the event of a federal government shutdown. We know discussion of a possible shutdown can be concerning to those who rely on WIC benefits to feed their families, but ADHS [...]
As a mother of young children, my heart aches when I see parents and caregivers facing a nationwide shortage of infant formula. There can be an overwhelming amount of information related to the early stages of parenthood, and unpredictable situations like this can add extra stress. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes sure formula [...]
The Arizona WIC program provides healthy foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and connections to community services for income-eligible women who are pregnant and postpartum, infants, and children up to five years old. Arizona WIC is a federally- funded supplemental nutrition and education program that serves almost 135,000 women, infants, and children each month with services [...]
Breastfeeding is a foundation of a healthy life. For the past 27 years, the first week of August has been declared World Breastfeeding Week. Breastfeeding helps to prevent malnutrition, ensures food security for infants and young children, and helps to bring people out of the hunger and poverty cycle. Breastfeeding is one of the most [...]
Every year the March of Dimes releases grades based on the final National Center for Health Statistics data. Arizona received a “B” grade for the 2017 Premature Birth Report Card. While the preterm birth rate worsened in 43 states in 2016, the rate remained the same in Arizona. A premature birth is defined as the [...]
Arizona may be known for its deserts, but forests make up nearly 27 percent of Arizona’s land. Recently, several wildfires have arisen across the state. By June 28, the Goodwin Fire in Yavapai County has spread to more than 20,000 acres. The Saddle Fire has also grown to nearly 5,000 acres in Cochise County. Evacuations [...]
The new eWIC is officially live in a beautiful new clinic in Casa Grande. WIC families will receive the same foods but shop using the new Arizona eWIC card rather than paper checks. Moms will find that eWIC is flexible and convenient as they can buy their WIC foods as needed and families will carry [...]
Between April and September, the Arizona WIC Program's outreach efforts included a new project to increase awareness of the WIC Program and increase participation among eligible women, infants, and children. The project has been a success with an increase of more than 10,000 participants a month. In September, more than 153,000 individuals received WIC services [...]
There’s increasing evidence that whether a person will have a healthy weight as an adult is influenced by nutrition and physical activity in the first 5 years of life. In fact, a new study this week in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that overweight 5-year-olds are 4 x more likely to become obese [...]
