This AEI study challenges conventional wisdom that WIC is a uniquely successful program and demonstrates that claims about WIC's effectiveness are exaggerated. Authors Besharov and Germanis advocate a sustained effort by policymakers to make the program more effective.

Key Points in the Book: WIC improves the diets and behaviors of some disadvantaged pregnant women, which may lead to some better birth outcomes. WIC increases the nutritional intake of some infants, especially those who would not have been breastfed, but may also reduce breastfeeding, which could have negative consequences. WIC has little impact on the diets of most one- to four-year-old children, but may help some children with inadequate intake of nutrients. WIC does not focus on overweight and obesity--the most serious nutritional problem facing disadvantaged Americans.

Needed Reforms:

• Services should be targeted to the more needful families, the group that seems to benefit most from WIC.
• State and local WIC agencies should have more flexibility to expand the basic food package and intensify nutritional counseling.
• WIC should seek to prevent overweight and obesity through education, counseling, and food preparation classes.
• WIC should cover children over the age of four, because problems like overweight worsen as children get older.
• Counseling should be more directive, because many nutritional problems are caused by unhealthy behaviors rather than by lack of food.
• WIC should try different service providers, for example health care providers that can provide a full range of health and nutrition services.
• All of the foregoing programmatic reforms should be rigorously evaluated, preferably through randomized experiments.