Sept. 7-13 is National Diaper Need Awareness Week, do you know about the diaper need nationally… and here at home?
For social workers trained to look for signs of parental neglect, a child in dirty diapers day after day would certainly raise a red flag. But the reason for that sad sight— and for the real neglect—may lie in the difficulty families have in obtaining sufficient diapers.
It can cost $100 or more each month to keep a baby in diapers. Yet no safety-net program of any kind at the federal or state level provide recipients help with buying diapers. Very poor families get help for food through various federally supported programs, and sometimes receive assistance for housing, and specially targeted funds support programs for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). But WIC and food assistance programs cannot be used for diapers, and other programs like Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) do not provide a line especially dedicated to the additional expense of diapers. And, while federal law has come to recognize that diapers can be a medical “necessity” for adults and older children with special needs, no federal law makes that same point — that diapers are medical necessities for babies.
This gap in the safety net has broad implications, starting with basic health. When babies’ diapers are changed infrequently because their caregivers are trying to conserve, children are at increased risk of urinary tract and skin infections, and even for communicable diseases such as viral meningitis, dysentery, and diarrhea. Babies crying from spending hours in a soiled diaper are also at increased risk of abuse, while toddlers with soiled diapers may be rejected by other kids.
In addition to health, there is a connection between having money for diapers and sending your child to school and going to work yourself. Most day care centers, including free and subsidized facilities, will not admit a child who arrives without a day’s supply of diapers (infants require up to 12 per day; toddlers about eight). Cloth diapers are not an option in many cases because most child care centers will not take them, and many families in need do not have easy access to laundry facilities.
If you don’t have the diapers to take your child to child care, then you may not be able to go to work or to a training course. And, if you have federal aid, you could lose it, as many federal aid programs, such as TANF, have some work or training component.
Issaquah Nonprofit, Eastside Baby Corner (EBC) is a local organization looking to help with diaper need in King County. EBC addresses the dilemma by supplying eleven local food banks and hundreds of individual children with diapers throughout the year. EBC provides, at no cost, about 700,000 diapers each year, distributed through social service agencies, hospitals, Public Health, the Department of Child and Family Services and schools, but that is only a fraction of the diapers needed in a state where more than 19% of children live below the federal poverty line ($26,450 for a family of four).
Beyond diapers, EBC takes in donations, purchases other goods such as formula and car seats, and gives out essential clothing, baby gear and products for local infants and children to families in need. Other area agencies such as WestSide Baby also supply diapers and essential goods for children. Eastside Baby Corner and Westside Baby together form a regional diaper collaborative known as Side By Side Northwest. Through Side by Side Northwest, EBC and WSB are working together to provide diapers to children in the Puget Sound region
You can help struggling families by supporting local organizations such as Eastside Baby Corner, WestSide Baby (and, through them, Side by Side Northwest).
Additionally, because diapers are essential for the health and welfare of children, please consider supporting administrative or legislative changes that can help change the future for a child and family.
Learn more about Eastside Baby Corner at www.babycorner.org.
Renee Zimmerman, Issaquah
