Warm bodies, cool milk: Conflicts in post partum food choice for Indochinese women in California

The Federal Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children provides nutritious foods and dietary counselling to low income women and children with a medically certified nutritional risk. The Public Health Foundation, a large WIC agency in Los Angeles, observed declining breastfeeding rates among Indochinese participants. We interviewed 110 Cambodian, ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese WIC participants about their infant feeding decisions and experience. These women believed that formula was superior to breastmilk for a number of reasons, some related to the Asian humoral medical system. The women described 'excessive cooling' during childbirth that they hoped to counter-balance by consuming humorally hot foods for 100 days post partum. A hot maternal diet was thought to produce unhealthy breastmilk after 1 month, so the women preferred using infant formula, perceived to be stable and more nourishing than breastmilk. The WIC Program is using these and other findings to make breastfeeding more attractive to Southeast Asians.