i've been at WIC (women, infants and children) for the past couple weeks. it's a federal program run by each state that provides nutrition counseling, breastfeeding support and food vouchers for low-income pregnant women and children up the age of 5. it's great b/c this is such a high risk population and the development and growth of a child at that time period is critical to their overall wellbeing in the future. unfortunately, in the nutrition counseling we only really get about 15 minutes with each client and getting through all the basics (alcohol, drug and smoking use, vitamins, etc) can take up so much of the time i can't really tell if i'm getting anywhere with anyone. or if i really get to say anything meaningful for each family. plus, most of them i feel like they just want their vouchers, or their issues are far beyond my scope of practice...
also, b/c NH is so rural, our WIC office travels throughout Cheshire and Sullivan Counties to provide support. we fill up the van with all the scales, laptops, printers, and handouts and host clinic inside churches, town hall buildings or wherever we can be and set up and then breakdown every day. it's a very smooth running operation but it's a great way to meet the need of rural populations.
i've been doing pretty much all my own counseling and completing the charts which is pretty amazing. today i ran through the whole day pretty much on my own (unless the vouchers really threw me off!). i'm still really unsure about counseling infants because that stage is so developmentally dynamic i never remember if they are breastfeeding or getting off a sippy cup or whichever stage of development it might be. but today i was counseling with a grandmother and her granddaughter (the mother ran off after giving birth and occasionally pops in). i was going through my usual speel with the grandma and she starts crying about how she sometimes feeds her granddaughter canned spaghetti o's or hotdogs and baked beans. it was heartbreaking b/c this woman tries so hard to feed her granddaughter good healthy food but it's hard for her and then sometimes the mother comes back and the little girl thinks she gets to be back with her mom again and throws off all stability. it felt nice to be able to reassure the grandma that she was doing the best she could and that it was ok if sometimes that means mac and cheese from the box. because nutrition isn't about being perfect 100% of the time, it's about balance and making sure the overall health is supported. and sometimes that's just making sure that the little growing girl knows her grandmother loves her and that she will always have food on her plate. it's days like these that i'm really hoping i can work in counseling. we'll see what happens once i start clinical!
also, b/c NH is so rural, our WIC office travels throughout Cheshire and Sullivan Counties to provide support. we fill up the van with all the scales, laptops, printers, and handouts and host clinic inside churches, town hall buildings or wherever we can be and set up and then breakdown every day. it's a very smooth running operation but it's a great way to meet the need of rural populations.
i've been doing pretty much all my own counseling and completing the charts which is pretty amazing. today i ran through the whole day pretty much on my own (unless the vouchers really threw me off!). i'm still really unsure about counseling infants because that stage is so developmentally dynamic i never remember if they are breastfeeding or getting off a sippy cup or whichever stage of development it might be. but today i was counseling with a grandmother and her granddaughter (the mother ran off after giving birth and occasionally pops in). i was going through my usual speel with the grandma and she starts crying about how she sometimes feeds her granddaughter canned spaghetti o's or hotdogs and baked beans. it was heartbreaking b/c this woman tries so hard to feed her granddaughter good healthy food but it's hard for her and then sometimes the mother comes back and the little girl thinks she gets to be back with her mom again and throws off all stability. it felt nice to be able to reassure the grandma that she was doing the best she could and that it was ok if sometimes that means mac and cheese from the box. because nutrition isn't about being perfect 100% of the time, it's about balance and making sure the overall health is supported. and sometimes that's just making sure that the little growing girl knows her grandmother loves her and that she will always have food on her plate. it's days like these that i'm really hoping i can work in counseling. we'll see what happens once i start clinical!
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