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This may be one of the saddest facts you read in a while: One in three moms in the U.S. struggle to afford diapers for their babies. One in three. And although more than five million U.S. babies and toddlers live in poor and low-income families, no government programs provide diapers or funding to purchase them.

Diapers are not what automatically comes to mind when we think of poverty, but to Joanne Samuel Goldblum, co-author with Colleen Shaddox of 鈥淏roke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty,鈥� diapers are a keystone staple whose absence underpins big problems, not just for the families affected, but for our economy and society.

鈥淎s a rule, our government thinks about 鈥榖ig things,鈥欌�� Goldblum says. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 think about the small things that can have such an impact. But if you think about what it takes to put yourself together in the morning to get out the door, those hygiene products cost a lot of money.鈥�

Goldblum points out that there鈥檚 no food-stamp equivalent that enables people to purchase hygiene items like diapers, toothpaste, shampoo or period products, and few nonprofits offer them for free. Hygiene does not figure into the government鈥檚 support equation, though remembering the times in our lives when we were not able to get to a shower for a couple of days, got caught out without a tampon or had to make a mad dash to the store when baby had a blowout can give anyone an appreciation for the urgency to feel clean. For people living in poverty, those needs are too often a relentless, daily constant.

Goldblum said she first became aware of the level of need when she was working at Yale Child Study Center as a social worker doing community-based work, which involved home visits with her clients.

鈥淲hat they had in common was a level of poverty that shocked me, even as somebody who thought they understood what poverty in the United States looked like,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he crystallizing moment was working with a developmentally disabled mom who had three children under 3 and they never had toilet paper in the house. There I was, a clinician, supposed to help them learn better parenting skills. There is no clinical intervention for not having toilet paper.

鈥淚 saw the same woman take the diaper off, empty out the solids and put it back on. She didn鈥檛 need to be taught that her baby needed a fresh diaper. She needed enough clean diapers.鈥�

Goldblum began to research the scope of the situation and found that in the U.S., lack of basic hygiene necessities is just not part of the conversation about poverty. She chose to focus on diapers because their lack serves as a window into poverty, as does the lack of period products for those who need them. Goldblum started the New Haven Diaper Bank, which is now the . After seven years, Huggies came on as a partner and served as the founding sponsor for the (NDBN), of which she is founder and chief executive, now connecting and supporting 225 member diaper banks across the country, with one in every state.

They still don鈥檛 meet the need. Before the pandemic, millions couldn鈥檛 afford diapers; now, the need is exponentially worse. The NDBN member diaper banks report an average 86% increase in the number of diapers distributed to children and families since the beginning of the pandemic, with many programs distributing 400% or more diapers in 2020 than 2019. Diaper banks are reporting an average 39% increase in the number of children served each month during the pandemic.

Diaper Need: A Public Health Issue

Beginning with the physical and emotional impacts on the baby, not having enough diapers has profound effects that go far beyond one little baby being forced to sit in their own filth 鈥� which, the indignation vibrating in Goldblum鈥檚 voice tells us, ought to be motivation enough. Babies without clean diapers are exposed to greater health risks and are prone to urinary tract infections and diaper rash.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to keep sight of how difficult that is on the parent as well. For any parent to have to decide between food and diapers, or heat and diapers? I don鈥檛 know how you make that decision.

鈥淢y kids are grown but I still remember what it鈥檚 like to have a baby with diaper rash,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 had hot water and enough diapers to change my baby regularly, but they still got diaper rash sometimes and I still remember the stress that caused. It was visceral for me.鈥�

It’s visceral for mothers in poverty as well, she says.

鈥淲e did a study in 2013 with our colleagues at Yale University, the first peer-reviewed study done about diaper need,鈥� Goldblum says. 鈥淲e found that diaper need was more highly correlated with maternal stress and depression than lack of anything else 鈥� even food. Not having enough diapers also impacts children鈥檚 mental health, being exposed to toxic levels of stress over long periods of time. It affects how children develop.鈥�

Diapers: Keystone to Our Economy

Beyond the fact of physical and emotional stress on mother and child, diaper need has a powerful effect on our economy. Most day care centers require that parents provide a day鈥檚 supply of disposable diapers for their children. Disposable diapers cost, on average, $80 per month, per child 鈥� for America鈥檚 poorest families, that amounts to around 14% of their after-tax income. If a mother doesn鈥檛 have enough diapers, she can鈥檛 take the child to day care.

鈥淣o diaper, no day care. No day care, no job. No job, no pay,鈥� Goldblum says. The cumulative effect of those absences takes a toll on the families and on the workplace, with ripples throughout the economy.

In 2017, a study by the University of Connecticut鈥檚 Center for Economic Analysis found that 57% of the families receiving diapers from The Diaper Bank of Connecticut had been unable to take their babies to child care at some point during the previous month because they didn鈥檛 have enough diapers. As Goldblum and Shaddox report in 鈥淏roke in America,鈥澛爄n most of the 2,679 households the researchers analyzed, the parents reported missing an average of four days of paid work or school a month. The study鈥檚 authors calculated an increase of $11 in personal income for every dollar鈥檚 worth of diaper aid that a family received.

The families鈥� incomes also rose because parents could complete educational programs qualifying them for higher-paying jobs when they had sufficient diapers. The study found that 1.2 to 1.3 jobs are created for every $10,000 of diaper aid 鈥� a ROI that leaves many taxpayer-funded 鈥渏ob creation鈥� incentives in the dust.

To those who helpfully offer that mothers in poverty should 鈥渏ust use cloth diapers,鈥� Goldblum agrees that鈥檚 a great solution for those who can get it.

鈥淐loth is absolutely an option for some people and in those cases, we encourage it. When it comes to cloth versus disposable, though, the National Diaper Bank is Switzerland: We don鈥檛 care. We want babies to be clean, dry and healthy. And we want it to work for families. As 95% of Americans use disposable, that鈥檚 going to be true of people in poverty as well.

鈥淔or people working a couple of jobs, living someplace without laundry facilities, struggling to get by, well 鈥� quality is a bit of a privilege.鈥�

Dismissing diaper need with 鈥渏ust use cloth鈥� or 鈥� another unhelpful and oft-offered opinion 鈥� 鈥渄on鈥檛 have a baby if you can鈥檛 afford it,鈥� indicates a deep lack of awareness of what life is like on the ground, in the trenches for America鈥檚 poor, who are often our working poor. As the authors point out in in 鈥淏roke in America,鈥� the people suffering from diaper need are often those pushing our cheeseburgers out the drive-through window or changing the sheets in that nice hotel we snagged for the weekend.

Though Welcome, Rescue is No Longer a Long-Term Solution

President Joe Biden鈥檚 American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill that Biden signed in March, is the federal government鈥檚 greatest initiative toward fighting poverty in the U.S. since Lyndon Johnson鈥檚 Great Society in the 1960s.

鈥淚t isn鈥檛 the answer,鈥� Goldblum says, 鈥渁nd it won鈥檛 end poverty. It is going to lift a huge number out of poverty, though. It鈥檚 not enough, but it鈥檚 in the right direction. Now we need to ask, what will we do post-COVID? What will we do in the long term?鈥�

At stake, she says, is our nation鈥檚 view of poverty and people on the margins 鈥� margins that are growing every day because of the one-two punch of the pandemic and income inequality. Historically, America has been a land of haves and have-nots, where people in poverty are viewed as somehow not deserving of help.

鈥淲hat I believe and what our diaper banks are about is that children deserve a level playing field,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o much of what happens in a person鈥檚 life is shaped by the first three years. Our goal is to have everybody come out of those first three years as strong as they possibly can be 鈥� and to do that, people need access to basic needs: laundry facilities, toilet paper, period supplies 鈥� and diapers.鈥�

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.