Diapers are a necessity for families with young children, but rising prices and tight household budgets have made it more difficult to keep up with that need.
“There are a lot of small costs that add up that make the cost of diapers and wipes almost out of reach,” said Nadya Dutchin, executive director of ShareBaby.
On Thursday, the Baltimore nonprofit distributed its 10 millionth diaper to a family in need at United Way Family Center at Excel Academy.
“Being able to distribute this 10 millionth diaper in our 10th year is just a beautiful, beautiful thing,” Dutchin said.
A trio of mothers founded ShareBaby in 2014 to share their surplus of baby items with a small network of families. Today, the nonprofit distributes more than 200,000 diapers and other essentials per month to more than 70 community partners, who then direct those items to the families they serve.
While a celebratory occasion, Thursday’s milestone also underlined the need for more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable families.
Access and affordability of diapers is a public health crisis, Dutchin said. She noted that 89% of the families who receive diapers from ShareBaby are unable to afford diapers despite working.
Nearly half of U.S. families with young children struggle to afford diapers, according to a 2023 national study by the National Diaper Bank Network. That’s up from about one-third of families when the network conducted its first diaper study in 2010.
The network notes that lack of diapers can create or worsen other issues, such as food insecurity from skipping meals in order to afford diapers, or missing work due to not having enough diapers to send a child to daycare.
Dutchin saw the price of some diaper packs rise from $25 in 2022 to $40 in 2023. With that increase, she said parents are often forced to sacrifice one basic need for another.
“When you are really watching every single penny going in and out of your home, that is just a really difficult decision to make,” she said. “Do you eat? Do you pay rent? Do you buy medicine? Do you pay tuition? Do you get your kid a new pair of pants for school?”
Dutchin, who became the nonprofit’s new executive director in July, said the organization’s mission resonated with her as a mother who has been in that same position herself.
“I’ve been there before, needing things when I was met with my firstborn child just out of college and didn’t know how I was gonna make ends meet,” she said. “If I did not have friends and family who leaned in and gave me most of the things that I ended up having, I don’t know how I would have been able to make it through those first few months.”
When her daughter passed away within one week of her birth, Dutchin was not only left with immense grief but also a house full of baby items for which she no longer had use.
“I’m sitting in my house with all of those things and … there was nowhere to give them,” she said.
Ultimately, Dutchin was able to donate those items to a pregnant colleague and the pregnant sister of another colleague. But the experience highlighted that not all pregnant people have a support system that can help them.
“What we do is really critical because, for a lot of parents, they don’t have a family that can provide those resources and support and so what we do can help stand in the gap for them,” she said.
As part of the National Diaper Bank Network, ShareBaby is able to purchase diapers at cost, significantly cheaper than the retail price. That means the nonprofit can stretch their dollars further and help more families. Currently, they distribute an average of 50 diapers per child per month, Dutchin said.
And it’s not just diapers and wipes. ShareBaby also distributes diaper bags, formula, strollers, playpens, toys, clothing, shoes, and other items.
Community members can give financially, or donate new or gently used items to ShareBaby’s Woodberry warehouse at 1792 Union Ave. There are bins outside the warehouse to deposit donated items 24 hours a day.
“As you’re doing your spring cleaning or your post-Christmas clean out of your house, be mindful of those things and feel free to bring them to the to the warehouse,” Dutchin said.
There are requirements for certain items. Clothing should be new or gently used, without holes or stains.
“We work very, very diligently to preserve the dignity of the families that we ultimately will give the items to,” Dutchin said.
For recipients’ safety, items like car seats and formula bottles must be new and never used.
But opened packs of diapers can be donated, which volunteers bundle and rewrap in packages of 25.
“When children are potty training, whenever you’re done, you’re done,” Dutchin said. “Or it seems like sometimes overnight your kid goes from one size diaper to the next. You feel like ‘What happened? I just bought a case.’ We take those.”
Currently, ShareBaby works solely with partner organizations within Baltimore City. But Dutchin said gentrification in Baltimore is pushing many residents out into the surrounding counties, where there is also a growing need for diapers and other supplies.
“People are moving out into the counties and so we see the need in the county is growing,” she said. “So that’s a consideration that we need to make in the next three to five years about how we may serve the county.”
For the time being, however, ShareBaby is just trying to keep up with current demand in Baltimore, where it regularly has eight to 10 prospective distribution partners on its waitlist.
Last year, ShareBaby added racks that tripled the capacity of their 9,000-square-foot warehouse. Although the space is meeting their current needs, Dutchin said she expects the nonprofit will have to expand their footprint in the next four years.
“We know that we’re going to outgrow this because unless something drastically changes with policy that makes diapers more affordable or actually subsidized free to families who need them, I can’t see this need going down,” she said. “We always want to organize ourselves out of a job. It would be great if everyone could actually afford to fully meet their children’s diapering needs. But until there’s a policy change, we expect the need to continue to grow.”
Visit ShareBaby’s website to give a donation or to find a nearby partner organization where you can inquire about items you need.
