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WIC Nutrition Risk Criteria

System Assigned (SA); System or CPA Assigned (SA/CPA); CPA Assigned (CPA); Automatic High Risk* (HR) Code Category [Priority] Risk Criteria/Definition Required Documentation 18

• Allowing the infant to fall asleep or be put to bed with a bottle at naps or bedtime. • Allowing the infant to use the bottle without restriction (e.g., walking around with a bottle) or as a pacifier. • Propping the bottle when feeding. • Allowing an infant to carry around and drink throughout the day from a covered or training cup. • Adding any food (cereal or other solid foods) to the infant’s bottle. 411.3

Routinely offering complementary foods* or other substances that are inappropriate in type or timing: * Complementary foods are any foods or beverages other than human milk or infant formula. • Adding sweet agents such as sugar, honey, or syrups to any beverage (including water) or prepared food or used on a pacifier. • Introducing any food other than human milk or iron-fortified infant formula before 6months of age.

411.4

Routinely using feeding practices that disregard the developmental needs or stage of the infant: • Inability to recognize, insensitivity to, or disregarding the infant’s cues for hunger and satiety (e.g., forcing an infant to eat a certain type and/or amount of food or beverage or ignoring an infant’s hunger cues). • Feeding foods of inappropriate consistency, size, or shape that put infants at risk of choking. • Not supporting an infant’s need for growing independence with self-feeding (e.g., solely spoon feeding an infant who is able and ready to finger-feed and/or try self-feeding with appropriate utensils). • Feeding an infant food with inappropriate textures based on his/her developmental stage (e.g., feeding primarily pureed or liquid foods when the infant is ready and capable of eating mashed, chopped, or appropriate finger foods).