This report, in the WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study 2 (WIC ITFPS-2)/ “Feeding My Baby” Study analyzes the long-term impact of the USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) by gathering information on caregivers and children over the first nine years of the child's life after enrollment in WIC, regardless of their continued participation in the program.

The goal of this study was to pilot creating a WIC participant characteristics (PC) longitudinal data set with one WIC state agency. Eight state agencies with varying management information systems (MIS) platforms and high quality WIC PC 2020 data completed a survey about their MIS and longitudinal data provision capabilities. The survey assessed these state agencies’ MIS capabilities, as measured in six areas, to provide a longitudinal data set. This report describes the process of working with one WIC state agency to create a pilot WIC PC longitudinal data set of infant and child participants and the challenges and successes of this effort.

In 2006, FNS asked the Institute of Medicine to review the WIC food packages. The IOM proposed major changes to improve nutrition and encourage breastfeeding but also expressed the concern that changes related to partial breastfeeding may have unintended consequences. The IOM recommended that FNS conduct an impact study evaluating the birth month breastfeeding changes to the WIC food packages.