Originally Posted by Crystal:
After re-reading the original post....is it possible Mom means formula when she says "milk" and is perhaps weining her from formula and only wants her to have water or juice during the day? Just curious, as you didn't say she specifically stated that she doesn't use formula. It seems a parent who is receiving WIC benefits would be educated about proper nutrition. Or, at least they should be, that IS the point of the whole program.
Most likely explanation is that she is not getting enough formula cans to cover the child's needs over the month. This begins to happen around the six to seventh month. There is a surplus of formula during the first six months and too little the last six months.
The Mom is either keeping the formula to use when she has the baby (it's easy and it is filling to the baby) and doesn't want to spend money to buy the cans to cover her during day care OR
she's switched her to milk and is selling the formula. If the baby has had a period of months with milk instead of formula she may have pernicious anemia. It's important to find out exactly WHAT she is drinking and how much. At her age, tall stature, and low low weight she should definitely still be on formula and her diet needs to be planned accordingly to make sure she is getting the upper limits of the ranges of each food group as long as she will take them (poster says she eats well).
If she is getting WIC she is getting formula until and thru the month of the first birthday. The only exception would be a breast feeding Mom who is taking the WIC food for the Mom instead of the formula. If she is doing this then she needs to supply the breast milk.
Either way it's breast milk or formula for the next five weeks at least. An extension on the formula could take her into month twelve thru fifteen. If she attended here I would ask the Mom to ask for the extension now and if WIC didn't provide or couldn't provide due to budget constraints then I would offer to purchase it myself with a Dr's reccommendation. It would be worth it to me to make sure she got the most caloric dense foods and liquids until her weight came at least within twenty percent or so of her height.