As costs balloon, ‘diaper insecurity’ is a growing problem for parents. A new California program is offering free diapers to help them.
An increasing number of U.S. families are “diaper insecure” – a term coined by the National Diaper Bank Network to describe parents who struggle to afford the essential baby item – rising from 33% in the mid-2010s to nearly half in 2024, according to a 2025 study. The cost of diapers has risen 22% between 2018 and 2022, according to the latest study from NDBP. For some families, the total cost of diapers in the first year of their child’s life can exceed $1,000.
But a new partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the nonprofit Supply Bank is giving California parents help with this inescapable cost of child-rearing. Their Too Small to Fail collaboration launched a new line of diapers and wipes on Monday that will be free to the public at community organizations and local government centers.
“Anyone who has had to buy a seemingly endless supply of diapers and wipes knows how quickly the costs add up,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a launch event in Oakland. “Unfortunately, our federal administration is failing in that regard. It’s actively working to make life harder and more expensive for families.”
The custom line of diapers and wipes will be offered free across California to anyone who requests them through intermediary nonprofits, community organizations and public agencies that purchase them for a reduced costs, including the library, WIC, hospitals and health clinics. These diapers have been tested against other diaper brands to ensure high-quality diapers are provided, said Supply Bank Founder and Executive Director Benito Delgado-Olson.
A lack of diapers can have unforeseen consequences for children and parents alike, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said, contributing to 40,000 annual hospital visits in California for preventable conditions such as diaper rash and infections, according to Supply Bank.
“Most of those visits are covered by MediCal, so (taxpayers) are paying for diaper needs, but in the most painful, harmful and expensive and insufficient way possible,” Lee said.
Lee recalled championing a bill to create a diaper bank in Oakland more than a decade ago, while she was serving in Congress. At the time, she said her colleagues nicknamed her disparagingly as the “Diaper Queen,” but the Democratic caucus soon embraced her efforts as they found that diaper access was not just an Oakland issue, but a national one.
“The model was simple: Use supply accessibility to source directly from manufacturers, which reduces cost and to work with trusted community partners to reach families with dignity,” Lee said. “That model became a national example, once again, starting here in Oakland.”
While Chelsea Clinton, the Vice Chair of the foundation, was unable to attend the press conference Monday morning due to a historic snowstorm pummeling New York, she sent a video message in her place.
“At this moment in time — where we seem to have quite a few political leaders and, painfully, fellow members of the public who seem rather comfortable with not doing everything that we know is critical to ensuring that every child everywhere has everything that we would hope for our own children to have — I think it is all the more important to stand in solidarity,” Clinton said from her New York apartment, flurries falling in the window behind her.
“We have a moral imperative and a civic imperative to ensure that we’re supporting the healthy wellbeing of every child, whether in Oakland or New York and places in between,” Clinton said.
