Wednesday, August 29, 2012

WIC Guilt

I signed Jonathan up for WIC today.  I have so much guilt associated with this!!  I should just let it go.

Guilt 1. That I'm not exclusively breastfeeding anymore.  About a month ago, he got thrush.  OW! Thrush makes breastfeeding excruciating!!  I wanted to quit then, but I stuck with it and when I couldn't stand another second, he got a bottle.  Whew, I made it though.  Then a little over week ago, he got it again!! I guess it never went away completely.  So he got more bottles again.  And I started some intense dieting, so all those combined made my milk go waaay down. Now we're doing formula during the day and breastfeeding at night.  I try to tell myself that he's still getting the good stuff from breastfeeding even if it's not exclusive.

Guilt 2. That I even accepted WIC.  We're not rich or even close to it, but when we budget and are careful we have enough for our needs.  But formula is expensive.

Guilt 3. The ladies at WIC tried to make me feel guilty that my other kids (and I) aren't on it!  Why, why, why? they asked. They started to make make me feel that I should put everybody on it.  When I finally got out of there, away from the pressure, I remembered that No! They don't need WIC!  I work hard to try to feed them well.  They don't eat a lot of junk, but eat meat, fruits, veggies, grains, and dairy.  So I don't need to feel pressure to put them on it.  Sure, then we would have more money for other things, but good food is more important than toys or non-essentials.  We have enough for our needs, and don't need all our wants.   

What a day! Time to just get over it.

In other news, today is our 6th Anniversary!  We'll be having a little family party tonight to celebrate. :)

2 comments:

Kimi Price said...

Don't worry. The guilt will pass. As someone who did WIC for myself and all my kids for most of this year, I can testify that the guilt doesn't last forever!

The Nickles four said...

Bethany you are way to hard on yourself. Stop it! now. 1. SOOO many women just give their babies formula from the get go without even trying to BF. so HOORAY for you for making it as long as you did, Formula is not evil. Celebrate yourself for continuing to bf at night. :O)
2. Everyone needs some help some times and formula is to expensive, it is way over priced! You need it to feed your child, it is not a luxury. You are doing nothing wrong by accepting the help that is there for you.
3. I don't think they were trying to make you feel guilty I think they were just offering it to you. There is nothing wrong if you accept it and nothing wrong if you don't it is just an option and they were letting you know. You can always pray about it! (can you tell I teach the yw lol)Not every family is the same and those that abuse the system make those of us who don't feel guilty when we take the help that we need. :O) So my advice if you take the help, you don't have to go on a shopping spree and buy toys you can save up for if you have an emergency.
When Phill was in college and we were first married we tried to get on food stamps because we honestly needed the help getting by we felt so bad about ourselves walking in there with all the people that were there just to get a hand out that we almost just left!