Olha Yarynich, Contributing Photographer

Parents break down in front of pediatricians as they explain how a lack of diapers exacerbates stress. Families travel more than an hour by car to reach a diaper bank in New Haven. A father feels lost about how to supply his daughters’ diapers for the next month. 

These are just some of the effects of the current diaper crisis in Connecticut — even with current initiatives like diaper banks, individuals struggle to provide a consistent supply of diapers for their children. 

However, in late January 2025, Connecticut lawmakers introduced House Bill 6397, aiming to expand Medicaid coverage to include diapers for children from birth to age 3 when deemed medically necessary. The impact this bill has on families across the state, including in New Haven, is transformative.

“Looking at it from a basic needs standpoint, diaper access represents a huge financial burden for many of our families that are on Medicaid,” Dr. Maryallen Flaherty-Hewitt, professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, told the News. “This bill will have a long term positive impact on the growth and development of our infants into being healthy toddlers and children. It can also help our families to have some financial freedom to spend money in other ways.”

What is the diaper disparity?

For many families across the country, diapers represent a critical yet overlooked necessity. According to Flaherty-Hewitt, infrequent diaper changes can cause patches of inflamed skin to develop on babies. Additionally, a lack of regular diaper changes increases the risk of urinary tract infections, which affect any part of the urinary system.

The medical ramifications of a lack of diapers affect the mother’s health as well. 

“In 2013, there was a study done that was published in the Journal of Pediatrics that showed the highest correlation between maternal depression and stress in moms and diaper need,” Janet Alfano, the executive director of the Diaper Bank of Connecticut, said. “This is a recurring stressor that’s going to happen every few hours over the first three years of your baby’s life, and it can interfere with what would be normal bonding with one’s child and how you feel about yourself as a parent.”

Diaper disparities also exacerbate economic hardships on a family. Many childcare centers will not accept children whose parents do not provide diapers, even if they rely on subsidized health care. This leads to parents not being able to go to work to care for their children, missing at times four days of work a week. Alfano points out that this leads to an average loss of $6,000 in wages.

To put diaper costs in perspective, most infants need diaper changes every two hours, leading to an average of 10 diapers per day. Most parents need 700 to 1000 diapers a year, waning off each year as the child becomes more independent. That means $60-$100 just for diapers each month. 

For families who earn low incomes or qualify for Medicaid, the cost is a significant barrier for diaper access. Alfano indicates that with costs of the basic needs like diapers rising, the income stagnancy forces families to improvise.

Ella Thomas, a missionary at Mt. Bethel Baptist Church, points out that some individuals are also forced to make harsh economic decisions; some have to decide between buying food and buying diapers or buying gas and buying diapers. 

Across the country, about one in three families struggle with access to diapers. In Connecticut, it’s one in two families. According to Flaherty-Hewitt, the issue of diaper disparity access goes beyond just concerning caregivers and parents.

“I believe this issue is important to everybody, because there’s so many things downstream that diaper disparities can affect,” Flaherty-Hewitt said. “What may seem insignificant, is not insignificant as a lack of access to diapers can have long-term impacts on the growth of that child. It should be, as a group, we want to make sure that our next generation is healthy and developing well. And it may not seem like diapers are associated with that, but they really are.”

How the diaper disparity is currently being addressed

One of the ways New Haven is addressing this need is through the hospital’s diaper distribution programs. Flaherty-Hewitt told the News that pediatricians and nurses at the Yale New Haven Hospital will keep a supply of diapers for patients and their families in their offices. Physicians also hold diaper drives across the hospital and the School of Medicine twice a year to drive up diaper supply.

Another way the city is addressing the growing need is through the expansion of diaper banks. The Diaper Bank of Connecticut partners with over 100 shelters, social service agencies and health clinics to distribute free diapers to families. The Diaper Bank helps nearly 7,000 families access diapers. One of the bank’s partners is Mt. Bethel Missionary Church in New Haven, which serves more than 200 babies every fourth Saturday of the month. 

“It’s the role of the church to do anything that we can,” Thomas said. “That’s one of the things we believe we are commissioned to do, was to help somebody. So if there’s a need, we’re supposed to address it as a church.”

According to Alfano, the bank only serves 7 percent of the diaper needs in the state. In her opinion, the most effective way to address the diaper care disparity is through enacting state-wide policies. Currently though, the only “policy” available is $75,000 from the state budget to an array of organizations, from faith-based to family resource centers, that act as diaper banks for their communities. Also, state Medicaid already provides diapers to children above the age of 3 for medical conditions.

However, Flaherty-Hewitt points out that local initiatives to expand diaper access are only short-term solutions to a systemic problem. According to Thomas, the demand for diapers increases each year, as more and more families come to the church for diapers. Additionally, the cost of other essentials like diaper wipes and creams adds another layer of financial strain for struggling families.

“They’ll look at a baby and say, Oh, she’s cute, or he’s cute, but they don’t think that that baby might be in need. People, to me, don’t see children as people,” Thomas said. “They’re not little people, they’re people within themselves, and they have to be taken care of.”

The bill

In past years, there were bill proposals inspired by community organizations like the Diaper Bank meant to democratize access to diapers. Initially, these organizations tried to allow everyone on Medicaid to receive diapers from the state; however, that was simply too costly for some lawmakers.

The new bill proposal filed by the Human Services Committee is more conservative. The bill states that for families on Medicaid to access diapers, a doctor needs to determine whether or not the diaper is medically necessary. This includes when the child is having a persistent diaper rash or if there’s a neurological condition that inhibits a child’s ability to use the restroom normally. 

“We [The Diaper Bank of Connecticut] had some discussions with the Department of Social Services to get this bill to happen,” Alfano said. “We’re only scratching the surface with this bill but we’re happy we at least get some language from policymakers they’re interested in this issue.”

Alfano is relieved that the diaper disparity in Connecticut is receiving more attention and that there is more support among the bill than last year. Lawmakers in Connecticut and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid are especially interested in enacting this bill. 

However, as Alfano suggests, this bill does not provide preventative care as the state only assumes responsibility if a medical condition already arises. It does not address the root cause of the diaper need itself. Thomas and Flaherty-Hewitt believe there should be no medical necessity requirement for diapers, as the diapers represent a medical necessity on their own. 

“Pediatrics, as a field, has been focused on trying to be less reactionary and more preventative,” Flaherty-Hewitt said. “I would hate for the medical necessity to be, ‘this baby has a really bad diaper rash because they didn’t have enough diapers, and now we can give them more diapers.’”

In addition, with the federal government threatening to make cuts to Medicaid, Alfano is worried that the bill might fail to pass for a third consecutive year. The estimated annual cost for the state is $119.9 million; and with federal reimbursements from Medicaid, the state’s share could be reduced to only $59.9 million.

Alfano told the News that to help move this bill forward, lawmakers may need to understand the specific impacts of diaper disparities in their communities.

“Throughout the legislative session up until June, hearing from folks in the community about why this is critical and what it means to your community, whether you have children or not, is incredibly important,” Alfano said.

The Mt. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church is located at 100 Webster St.