Impact of the WIC program on the iron status of infants.

The WIC Program (Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children) was initiated in the early 1970s to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women, lactating women, and children from birth to 5 years of age who were at risk for nutritionally related health problems. Better hematologic status of a group of preschool-aged infants who were enrolled in the WIC Program from birth, as compared with another group of similar age and socioeconomic status from the pre-WIC Program era, suggests that participation in the WIC Program will help limit the development of iron depletion or iron deficiency anemia in young children, an important consideration in view of the deleterious hematologic and nonhematologic effects that have been attributed to those conditions.