Description
    The Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program serves pregnant and post-partum women, infants and children up to the age of 5 in the Greater Danbury (HVCEO) Region. WIC provides nutrition education and counseling while supplying nutritious foods to supplement dietary intake. Three members of the Health Department also assist the Danbury Housing Partnership, which is charged with implementing the Mayor’s Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness.

Successes
    The WIC Division provides comprehensive nutrition education and counseling that enables WIC to monitor infant and children growth ,and the Division works to improve nutritional outcomes such as overweight, obesity and anemic children. Danbury’s WIC program continues to lead the State of Connecticut by having an 88% breastfeeding initiation rate and we continue to see a reduction in low birth weight (LBW) infants by having a decreased rate of 3.1% this year. The decreased rate of LBW infants is an excellent reflection of the prenatal counseling by our nutritionists and the supplemental foods provided by our WIC program. Also, 73.6 percent of pregnant women who participated in WIC for a minimum of six months gained appropriate weight. The Danbury WIC Program has developed group nutrition education classes for children age 1-5years as well as pregnant and breastfeeding clients. Education classes are an effective and efficient program that also provides a supportive group environment.

CT Department of Public Health: WIC

Text 4 Baby