Turn Off Your Cell Phones....

[Beekissed]

Ridiculous! I know a lady that never worked a day in her life who got disability because she is a hypochondriac....yep, mental disability! I think the more you treat for a problem, the more documentation you have, it all increases your chances of gaining disability. Unfortunately, the people who are needing a physical disability ruling are often the ones who cannot work or cannot afford multiple evaluations by several doctors.

I've never understood the system at all. Some folks have no problem at all~usually the ones with a mental disability(depression, etc.) and some folks work at it for years, all the while working in extreme pain with a bad back, neck, etc.

My dad became disabled shortly after we moved off grid. That year he had to be off work was a short shrift year! We lived totally off the land and flour gravy was an every morning dish. Luckily, he had lots of kids to help with the heavy work and, man, did we work!!

 

[greenrootsmama]

I'm sorry, I know this is a sensitive topic and I don't mean to offend anyone. It just seems like disability is one of those that the people who really need it don't get it and the people who really don't do. I have a friend who is on disability because she's bi-polar. WTF? I don't know how she managed it but I don't think being bi-polar is a good enough reason for collecting disability. She can work, she can function in society. Sure, she's a little wacky and likes to over sleep but that's not enough to render her unemployable. On the other side, back in '91 my aunt was in a severe car accident that had her hospitalized for several months and then bed-ridden for about a year. My uncle's insurance wouldn't pay for an in-home nurse but she had an incision from her neck to her pubic bone that was left wide opened and the bandages needed to be changed three times a day. They also had three kids under age 5. They were in a desperate situation and ended up taking food donations and other charities from their church because they couldn't qualify for any help. Fortunately, their house was paid for but it would have been nice to have a little help.

Wifezilla: I don't doubt that this is likely the situation in many cases. I think both the food stamp industry and WIC would benefit people more if they offered educational nutritional support to those in need. Not to mention helping people out of depression. I know it can be depressing to have to ask for help and sometimes that can lead to a downward spiral of self-loathing and poor health.

Pams Pride: I don't know if it's an actual physical or not. My sister tends to exaggerate sometimes, LOL. It's likely the same hoops you've described.

 

[poppycat]

Hey Quail! I've been thinking about you and your family and wondering how you're getting along. I hope you get your well however it may come to you. I also hope the disability comes through for you eventually. Although, heaven knows, it may be a long wait. I took my mom a long time to get it approved, partially because she tried to work whenever and however she could. Things had to get very bad (she has Parkinson's) before it came through for her.

Hang in there! Hugs to you and you're lovely family.

 

[greenrootsmama]

So my sister emailed me the hand-outs that WIC gave her.

It should be noted that my sister is 5' tall and maybe 100 lbs soaking wet (funny since I'm 6'1" but that's a topic for another conversation). Her DH is about 6'2" and very lean as well. So naturally her kids are very small. DS2 is 2 months younger than her DD2 and he's nearly twice her size.

WIC pulls out the growth chart and notices that her kids are in the lower end of normal. So they're pushing her to pump her kids full of saturated fats, grease and processed meat. Lucky for my nieces my sister is moderately intelligent and wouldn't ever feed her kids half of the things on the "list". I don't know how to attach a jpeg to this so I'll just paraphrase some of the info on the hand-outs:

Use whole milk dairy products
*use whole milk plain or with instant breakfast powders
*whole milk cheeses (cheddar, jack, american and so on)
*pudding (made with whole milk)
*custard
*ice cream
*kefir
*fruit yogurt
*4% milk fat cottage cheese
*ovaltine
*milk shakes
*eggnog

Choose high fat meats/meat alternatives
*cheeseburgers
*lunch meat
*hot dogs
*fish sticks
*fried chicken with skin
*ham
*spare ribs
*ground beef
*breaded fish
*dark meat turkey with gravy
*nut butters
*fried beans

The list continues on for other areas of nutrition but for convenience and arguments sake I'm going to stop here. For those of us who are educated about these types of foods, we know that not all fat is created equal. The store-bought equivalent to otherwise healthy food is very unhealthy - especially those that are WIC approved. For instance, if I make yogurt in my own kitchen it will contain milk, culture, fruit and honey (if I can figure out how to do it without screwing it up, LOL). Yogurt bought in the supermarket is filled with HFCS, food dye and preservatives unless you go for the expensive organics which are not WIC approved. And I can't for the life of me figure out how lunch meat, hot dogs and fish sticks can possibly be healthy. They don't seem to understand that it's not just the quantity of calories but the quality as well. Padding one's heart with fat is not the same as feeding one's brain and structure with beneficial fats that the body can actually use. There are some good suggestions on these lists as well but they don't educate people about the differences between healthy, beneficial fats and saturated, heart disease-causing cholesterol.

 

[the simple life]

The people who run WIC are not geniuses by any means, but their program does help, people are getting free food and I doubt they take anything they say to heart much put into action anything some worker says to them anyway.
I have never heard of WIC doing a physical, a weight and height check and filling out a nutrition questionare yes, and I think that is appropriate for the service they offer.
They have to justify their funding.

 

[greenrootsmama]

Not everyone researches their food choices. In fact, the majority of the population breeze through their lives doing exactly what they're told whether the instruction comes from their TV, their doctor, their neighbor, or WIC. I'm sure I'm not alone when I question everything I'm told, no matter the source but I'm definitely in the minority. When I read articles about the agencies of government who are supposed to protect We-The-People suddenly mandating that known toxins are safe it really makes me question every other source of instruction as well. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. My point is that the people who are walking around carrying significant extra bulk are clearly not paying attention to their health and if they are it's because their doctor told them to as a result of many years of neglecting themselves. These are the same people who are going to take that list from WIC and believe that everything on it is in the best interest of their health and the health of their children. It's no wonder the majority of the US population is overweight and, therefore, unhealthy.

 

[the simple life]

I still highly doubt that a wic worker can influence anyone.
If someone went in there who is a junk food junkie and feeds their kids garbage on a regular basis and the wic worker tells her to feed them a list of health foods, don't see it happening.
People are going to do what they have always done in relation to their food habits, they make their own decisions.
If someone is a vegetarian and gets handed that list, are they really going to go out and buy a sausage?
Because the government told them to?
If someone who has always been healthy food concious and has made an effort to eat right then they are opinionated and independant minded enough to not be influenced by a handout from a wic worker.
You can't blame others for your poor eating habits,including wic, THATS what is wrong with this country and obesity, blame others for your lack of interest in what you put in your body.
Sue Mcdonalds because you got fat eating their big macs.
People need to own up to the choices they make.
People know what is good or bad for you or you live under a rock.
Has anyone else noticed that this forum has basically turned into anti this and anti that medical establishments, the government, insurance companies etc.
People go on rants about how much they hate all these establishments but it actually has nothing to do with this forum at all.

 

[shareneh]

When I had my first baby, the clinic told me to go down the hall and apply for WIC. I went there and the ladies were so nice. They explained about nutrition, breastfeeding, vaccinations and motor function in babies. That was in 1986 so I don't know about today's WIC program.

I breastfed my kids but also supplemented with formula if the babysitter ran out while I was at work.

I thought the program did a lot for helping me decide what to feed my baby. They taught me good habits like, no pop for kids, no milk or juice in the bottle for bed, what toys to buy etc. I know that most people don't care as much as those ladies did; but it helped me to be a better mother.

Yeah, a person can take what they want from anything. I got the best advise from those ladies. I knew that they cared and hopefully I was a better mother for it. They took their job seriously and I always wanted to do the right thing because they had drummed it into my head before the first baby even arrived.

 

[Wifezilla]

The only think wrong with the dairy portion of that list is it includes foods that are high in SUGAR. Sugar makes you fat and unhealthy, natural fats do not.

The other part of the list, well, it is the fillers and added sugars that make processed meat unhealthy (like the breading). Saturated fat doesn't make you fat or give you heart disease....sugar, flour and other carbohydrates do.

People know what is good or bad for you or you live under a rock

Because we have been lied to since the McGovern hearings on diet in nutrition, this is not entirely true. People freaking out about saturated fat being a prime example. Saturated fat doesn't make you fat. It never did, though we were all told to avoid it for the last 30 years. The result? Higher obesity levels, more heart disease, more cancer, more type 2 diabetes....

 

[Homesteadmom]

WIC does not supply you with most of those foods, so weather they are WIC approved or not is irrelavent. Dannon makes a all natural yogurt that has no HFCS or artifical colors or flavorings in it. I buy it all the time. All you get from WIC is milk, cheese(if you choose it), 100% juice, cereal, eggs, PB or beans(your choice). For babies it is formula to start with, then cereal & juice added. For nursing women you can get carrots(fresh, frozen or canned) & tuna in water. As to the whole milk issue, the research I have done on it is that it is the best milk for us is whole as it is better for the fats in it we need. Because my dd is above the 50% mark she gets 1%, so I only get 4 gals & the cheese the rest of the milk I buy is whole & we alternate it.

As to SS disability, it took me a long time to get it too. My podiatrist finally wrote a raving note to the federal judge & he was reading it while my attorney was questioning me & stopped the questions & asked if i had worked a 40hr job since my injury, I told him no & he declared me disabled & eligible for payments. There was a huge back payment made & then monthly payments. Then the process for my children started & lots of paperwork for that too again!! Not an easy process, but the first time I applied I was denied all the way thru my appeal, so back to work I went & did a few different jobs till I had surgery again on my foot & doc said I needed to stay off it as much as possible, so back to the drawing board we went. A word of advice for anyone trying to get it, make copies of everything you send in & when they ask you the same questions write down the exact same thing everytime!!!!!! This shows consistincy to them as they look for the inconsistincies in your answers(SS worker told me that, shhhh!!).

Don't even get me started on the foodstamp program, you don't want to hear my horror story about it.