Infants And Children

NEARLY 10,000 more Maryland women and their young children will be able to get free infant formula, milk and other food, thanks to $630,000 in additional federal funds for the state's Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplemental Food Program.Calvert St., Box 1377, Baltimore 21278. (

Congress' recent efforts to balance the federal budget give new meaning to "women and children first. " The $500 million cut to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) that President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to as part of last month's budget deal pushes the nation's fiscal concerns onto the shoulders of babies. Because WIC actually reduces health care costs, it is not clear why it has been targeted for cuts. Economic analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

WASHINGTON -- Eight million children are hungry or at risk of being hungry in the United States, and prevention of hunger should be a top congressional priority, maintains Sen. Jim Sasser.Sasser, D-Tenn., testified yesterday before a Senate Budget Committee hearing to promote his Childhood Hunger Prevention Act of 1991, which would channel more than $250 million into nutrition programs and seek rule changes in federal-assistance programs."I was pleased to see that the president's budget this year invests more heavily in some children's programs than in the recent past," he said.

Babies do not know much about economic theory, but their health and well-being are dependent on economic conditions. Economists such as Nobel laureate James J. Heckman are convinced that securing babies' health and education is a wise investment. Yet Congress is considering a compromise with President Bush that would limit the funding of our country's largest and most successful health and nutrition program targeted to pregnant women, infants and children under age 5. WIC - formally the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children - was initiated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1974 to prevent low birthweight and iron deficiency.

Babies do not know much about economic theory, but their health and well-being are dependent on economic conditions. Economists such as Nobel laureate James J. Heckman are convinced that securing babies' health and education is a wise investment. Yet Congress is considering a compromise with President Bush that would limit the funding of our country's largest and most successful health and nutrition program targeted to pregnant women, infants and children under age 5. WIC - formally the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children - was initiated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1974 to prevent low birthweight and iron deficiency.

Among the many unfortunate cuts in domestic spending in President Bush's budget proposal is one that seems unnecessarily callous and will eliminate a relatively inexpensive food program that supplemented the diets of low-income seniors and poor pregnant women and children. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program serves about 424,000 people for less than $20 per person each month. More than a third of them are over age 75. Nearly 49,000 pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children will also be affected.

Government bashing has become such a popular hobby that it comes as a surprise when people actually want to celebrate a government program, especially one designed to help poor people. The celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, illustrate that sometimes government does things right.Baltimore has special cause for pride; the chief model for the program was pioneered here in the late 1960s by community activists and a young Hopkins pediatrician who recognized the crucial link between nutrition and health.

Hunger hurts at any age, but as scientists learn more about the role of nutrition in human development, hunger's toll becomes clearer. Stunted development, both mental and physical, is only part of the cost. Chronic health problems can begin at birth; later on, schools see the results in children unable to learn or even concentrate. That is doubly tragic when the causes for failure in school are preventable by something as simple as decent food, especially in the crucial early years of life.

Congress' recent efforts to balance the federal budget give new meaning to "women and children first. " The $500 million cut to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) that President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to as part of last month's budget deal pushes the nation's fiscal concerns onto the shoulders of babies. Because WIC actually reduces health care costs, it is not clear why it has been targeted for cuts. Economic analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Mount Airy library will offer children's programs this fall.Registration is being accepted for "Tony Ross is Special," for children in kindergarten and older at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 1."Making Music," for infants and children to age 3, will be held at 6:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9. Registration starts Thursday."Little House on the Prairie," for children in first grade and older, will be held at 4:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Nov. 15. Registration starts Nov. 1.Registration also is being accepted for "A Tour of the World Wide Web," for adults at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30.The library is at 705 Ridge Ave. Information: 795-1010.

Arecent study reported more instances of hypertension in younger children than previously realized. In addition, many young children are malnourished, causing them to be underweight or overweight. While much attention has rightly been paid to the troubling increase in childhood obesity, the growing prevalence of other, linked diseases among children should be equally alarming and generate more preventive action on the part of parents, doctors and schools. The study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association last week found that doctors fail to diagnose high blood pressure in more than 75 percent of young children who have it, in part perhaps because some symptoms are not manifested in children.

Among the many unfortunate cuts in domestic spending in President Bush's budget proposal is one that seems unnecessarily callous and will eliminate a relatively inexpensive food program that supplemented the diets of low-income seniors and poor pregnant women and children. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program serves about 424,000 people for less than $20 per person each month. More than a third of them are over age 75. Nearly 49,000 pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children will also be affected.

JUST AS the cool autumn weather rolled into our area, Annapolis resident Janice Fisher headed to the Caribbean. The weather there was warm, but her trip was no vacation. Fisher and four other health care professionals were on a mission to take care of infants and children at an orphanage in Haiti. In four days, Fisher, a physical therapist at Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, and a doctor, two nurses, and a nutritionist evaluated and treated more than 375 children and a few adults.

The abuse won't stop until protecting kids becomes a top priority Maryland's citizens face again the inexplicable horror of preventable infant mortality after two infants have reportedly died because of abuse ("Mother, 19, charged in death of her infant son," Dec. 18, and "Murder charge filed against man accused in infant son's death," Dec. 18). In America, close to 1 million children have been victims of abuse and neglect. More then half the children suffering fatal maltreatment were younger than age 1, and almost 90 percent were under 6. With too many children fatally or seriously injured or neglected, it is shocking that as a community we do not insist that more be done to prevent child maltreatment and safeguard babies.

For almost two years, Salena Donohoe and a scary-looking purple dinosaur named Flossy the Flossasaurus have been teaching North County children from low-income families about the evil of tooth decay and the good of brushing their teeth.Donohoe, 28, is a volunteer with a pilot program at the county Department of Health's North County dental clinic in Glen Burnie.Conceived by the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore, the program enlists peer counselors to preach early dental care for preschoolers to families in Women, Infants and Children (WIC)

Gregory Westergaard tries to figure out what goes on inside a monkey's head.The animal psychologist has spent five years watching monkeys soak up apple juice with leaves, hit targets with stones, crack walnuts with rocks and shatter rocks to create knifelike wedges to cut into jars of peanut butter."

WASHINGTON The Federal Trade Commission has subpoenaed records of all leading manufacturers of infant formula, suspecting that they collaborated to raise prices."

PRIMARY election results and a Times Mirror survey reinforce some rather grim news: People have stopped voting! Whether the culprit is apathy or cynicism, the survey indicates that voter apathy "threatens to block the effective resolution of social and economic issues."Now more than ever, the stakes are incredibly high. Our military presence in the Middle East continues to take its toll. For sure, oil costs will escalate. The cost of living is climbing. Closer to home, the state budget is riveted with deficiencies.

Mount Airy library will offer children's programs this fall.Registration is being accepted for "Tony Ross is Special," for children in kindergarten and older at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 1."Making Music," for infants and children to age 3, will be held at 6:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9. Registration starts Thursday."Little House on the Prairie," for children in first grade and older, will be held at 4:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Nov. 15. Registration starts Nov. 1.Registration also is being accepted for "A Tour of the World Wide Web," for adults at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30.The library is at 705 Ridge Ave. Information: 795-1010.

HOUSTON -- A new census report released today paints a harrowing picture of the 5.3 million mothers of childbearing age who were receiving food stamps during the summer of 1993.The women, between the ages of 15 and 44, were younger when they first became mothers; had more children to raise; and were far more likely than other women their age to never have been married, never to have held a steady job and never to have gotten a full education.The mothers, studied as part of a continued look at women getting government aid, represented 15 percent of the 36 million mothers of childbearing age in the nation.