Sometimes you just need a little help, especially with the way things are lately. But if you’ve ever looked at the cereals available with WIC, you may have been a little perturbed to see that there are no gluten-free options.
Ah, but there are (at least in Texas) – they just don’t generally tell you about it.
WIC stands for Women, Infants, and Children. It is a government program for low-income families, designed to help pregnant women and children under the age of 5 to get started on the road to good nutrition. Typical “packages” include milk, cheese, eggs, cereal, juice, beans or peanut butter, and now fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
In Texas (and I don’t know about other states), if your child is gluten-free (or you as a pregnant mom), you can get a prescription for gluten-free cereal. Also, if you are in need of non-dairy milk, you can fill out the prescription for that, also. It asks for a reason, and includes “celiac disease” and “other, specify”, and it needs to be signed by a doctor. Upon completion of this, you are eligible to purchase Rice Chex and Corn Chex instead of the other cereals available.
If you are not in Texas, try searching your state’s WIC website, to find out more.
Check out the WIC and General Mills gluten-free brochure.
Comments
One response to “Going Gluten-Free with WIC”
That is great news. I live in MI so I am not sure that applies here. When my twins were born we qualified for WIC and we were able to get lactaid milk instead of regular milk. They were really good about adjusting my package and giving me more cheese(we could handle a little more of that). This time when I had a baby we did not qualify anymore so I am not aware of how our state works. That is awesome for those that do qualify (if your state participates). If they don’t maybe a person could still make a special request. When I asked for the lactaid I was the first one they had ever worked with. So they all need to start somewhere.