California Passes First-Ever Bill To Give Poor Families Money For Diapers

[arithia]

Source: ThinkProgress

California lawmakers passed a bill this week that would give families on welfare with children under the age of two a monthly $50 voucher for diapers. It now waits for Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) signature or veto. When the bill was first introduced in 2014, it was estimated that 120,000 children would get the assistance.

Diapers are a huge expense. One infant can require up to 240 of them each month, which can cost $18 a week or nearly $1,000 a year. That’s an enormous share of a family’s budget for those below the poverty line — people in the lowest quintile spend nearly 14 percent of their income on diapers. Cloth diapers are not a viable alternative for many families, as laundromats won’t let people wash them and daycare centers usually require disposable ones.

That leaves families in a difficult bind. Nearly 30 percent of all women have experienced a time when they couldn’t afford diapers for their children. That leads a sizable share to stretch diapers when supply is running low, risking urinary infections and diaper dermatitis. Others have had to turn to family, friends, and charities to afford them.

One California city has already done something to help needy families. At the end of last year, San Francisco began distributing diapers directly to about 1,300 families on welfare.



Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/california-diaper-need-d9abd8c7a3f7?source=latest

[Stuart G]

1. Great News.........nt

[etherealtruth]

2. Wonderful!!!!!

[byronius]

3. Proud of my state.

How I love our Democratic Supermajority. Just makes everything so much -- smarter.

[Hekate]

16. Me too.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Excellent

[pretzel4gore]

5. no no no!

long ago i had friends who were with a newborn....she was upset at cost of 'pampers' even then and i suggested that 9 or ten tonnes of waste product per baby was just too much for ecosphere. Cloth diapers were more work and lotsa hassle, yes but ....since early 70's more then 500 billion tonnes of diaper has been put into landfill (the earliest diapers still retain their plastic shape; they'll be here long after humanity disappears from planet earth)
Had the public interests defied the corporate pig/oilgas industry BEFORE THE RONALD! then a mom and pop business would have developed starting in early 70's in the poorer section of towns, a biz that handled sealed containers of used diapers, replacing with a week's supply of fresh new diapers! Thus, many jobs created, and...more importantly, billions of tons of toxic waste never become a issue, global warming alot less. Every kids born since throway diapers first marketed has created millions a tonnes of toxic waste, and dimly we all know it! The greasy fukkin pig benefitted by using a fabricated need (for single use diaper) to wage war on the earth, on god and future humanity. It too late now, but the fascists are hardly pleased- stealing candy from starving children aint that much of an accomplishment, not when put into context of overheated air. Donald Trump deserves the Whouse-he best represents the vacuity of the human race.

[CreekDog]

6. you shouldn't oppose helping poor families afford diapers

the money provided could also help pay for a diaper service.

the changes you are seeking aren't going to change the short term need for diapers and therefore the difficulty affording them that this law seeks to ameliorate.

[arithia]

7. uuh...

with all due respect, to both you and the planet, I think you are missing a few important facts.

This isn't the 70s. They make biodegradable, disposable diapers out of bamboo and other natural materials now. They are a bit more pricey than the cheapo brands, but a tax credit might bring them down into the affordable range for the working poor.

Both children and new mothers are suffering adverse health affects here, now, in objective reality, because they are too poor for the mothers to afford diapers.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/diaper-need/399041/
http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-ra-diaper-bill-helps-poverty-20140811-column.html

Women are re-using disposables to make them stretch and their babies are getting sick from it. The women are suffering depression for being unable to put a clean diaper on their child's butt. Child care providers pretty universally require disposable diapers- if you don't have them, no child care. Lack of access to child care keeps the working poor from pulling themselves free of poverty. It is a vicious cycle that punishes women and children needlessly.

There needs to be cultural and technological changes if we want to get away from disposables or make more recyclable diapers affordable. Advocating for those changes is far more productive than throwing your hands up in the air and saying "f*ck it, give the country to Trump."

[pretzel4gore]

23. why is the world so darn stupid?

being a 66 year old member of it, the question rankles. The old 'it takes a village to raise...' etc says that new moms should not be the ones burdened with any of the dreary costs of bringing up a lil one, but our society just hurries on w/out looking at what its doing- and the reason for this is the mass media is FASCIST and rightwingers are compulsive liars by nature. I agree that making life easier for the overworked is very good, but the mess was made ON PURPOSE by the fascists who conspire openly against the common good; one feature of this is disposable diapers. Did you know, had the pigs been stopped by the gov long ago, that the car industry, which has only been around for about 70 year, would have been mainly electric the entire time (the oil gas industry literally gave gas away while the car culture was developing- they then raked in windfall profits until the cost to enviro became too obvious) The same mentality that gave us the Iraq war gives us gas guzzlers and pampers etc.
They're like drug pushers but with a fricking badge on their hat!
And I take back anything that encourages that Trump character!

[csziggy]

8. My nieces and nephews were raised with cloth diapers and so are their children being raised

One major problem is the amount of water needed to clean the cloth ones but I don't know how much water might be needed to produce the disposables.

A niece remarked that her sons are learning potty training much faster than her friends' children that use disposables. With cloth diapers the consequences of dirty diapers are clearly felt by the kids and they are happy to learn to use the facilities to avoid that nasty feeling.

So not "Every kids born since throway diapers first marketed has created millions a tonnes of toxic waste" - quite a few parents are fully aware of the environmental damage and don't participate in the practice.

[Tikki]

9. Not every low income family has daily access to a washing machine.

Slogging wet diapers to the laundromat...

I think it is a great idea and include ideas on potty training for first time parents.


Tikki

[csziggy]

10. True - my Mom and Dad struggled to keep a working washer until my little sister was grown

Enough to be out of diapers - long before disposables. As soon as she was potty trained, the next time their old washer died, Mom started taking laundry to the laundromat. It was a pain but with my older sister's allergies, being able to use a dryer - rather than letting the pollen settle on the stuff on the clothesline - made a big difference. It was still a hassle, even with a car and access to a laundromat!

[Drahthaardogs]

18. You put them in a bucket to soak and wash by hand mostly

We used cloth diapers on our kids except when traveling. I am not excited about this legislation. Cloth diapers need to make a resurgence.

[Hekate]

21. Sure. And Mom stayed at home to do it. And apartment buildings had washlines strung from ...

....building to building.

Some inventions were deemed miraculous when they came along. Washing machines. Dryers. Talk about setting women free to do something else! Disposable sanitary napkins! Woohoo!

And disposable diapers.

I was a good little ecological worrier when I had my kids in the late '70s, used piles of cloth diapers and kept the stack washer-dryer in my condo humming. But as soon as I had to go back to work and the kidlets had to go to preschool, that was over.

I still feel dubious about wasting resources, but if they've made those things biodegradable,

[Drahthaardogs]

22. Once you used the word

Kidlets, I quit taking your argument seriously.

Sorry.

[Hekate]

24. Well aren't you the stuffy one. I call my grandson kiddo, too.

[CreekDog]

11. to distract from the need for this kind of support or to oppose it in any respect is wrong

for you to suggest that these struggling families should not get assistance for this expense even though the rest of the population mostly uses disposables is ridiculous.

[csziggy]

12. Where did I suggest any such thing? I was responding directly to pretzel4gore

And the comment in his post, "Every kids born since throway diapers first marketed has created millions a tonnes of toxic waste, and dimly we all know it!"

I made absolutely NO comment about the use of disposable by anyone other than the one comparing my niece's experience with potty training versus that of her friends who use disposables.

I did NOT say one word indicating that struggling families not get help with diaper expenses.

You are reading things into my comment that ARE NOT THERE.

[Hekate]

14. Are you aware that it's ADULTS who generate far more diapers for the landfills?

Babies are in and out of diapers in 2 years. Once adults start needing them they can go on for 10 years or more before they die.

As for your incoherent rant, others have already addressed your main grievances, and I hope you mull over the information they have given you.

[roamer65]

13. We should start paying folks not to have children.

There I go bringing up that ugly, little topic of population control again.

Less diapers in a landfill, less CO2 emissions, less deforestation for agriculture.

One planet, one child.

[Hekate]

15. See my post #14 regarding adult diapers

[roamer65]

19. Less children=less adults.

That means less diapers in landfills, period.

[Hekate]

20. And before that happy day arrives, what do you plan to do about hygeinic necessities?

[Quantess]

17. Good! Now if we can get everyone to throw them in a garbage can and not litter!

How disgusting ARE some lazy people, who throw dirty diapers anywhere and everywhere?!

What is so difficult about the concept of a trash can?