Did you know, that WIC and foodstamps cannot be used to pay for diapers? If you have ever bought diapers, you know how expensive they are.
Babies need to be changed 8-12 times a day, for an average cost of $100 a month. For someone at the poverty level ($12,490 for an individual) this means diapers cost 10% of their income.
Heck, I’m lucky enough to be above the poverty level, and my husband and I spaced our daughters so that we wouldn’t have children in diapers at the same time.
We also had to fortune to be able to buy in bulk at a big box store. And, if not in bulk, we could shop around for the best deal. There are a lot of people out there that are not so lucky, it's hard to shop around if you don't have a car. They end up walking to the nearest convenience store, and paying twice as much for half the diapers.
What happens when folks can’t afford diapers? They don’t change them often enough and leave the children in them longer. Some people try cleaning and reusing. Some improvise, and try things like plastic bags. Of course, this is not good for the health of the baby; and it’s not good for the family either. An uncomfortable baby, is a fussy one, increasing the risk of abuse.
I know, I know, diapers are horrible for the environment. Ideally, we’d all use cloth or biodegradable diapers and do away with disposables.
Things aren’t that simple. Lower income folks may not have a washer and dryer; and many Laundromats won’t let you use their equipment. There is also a lot of controversy over whether cloth diapers or disposables pollute the most. https://www.life.ca/naturallife/0910/which_are_greener_cloth_or_single-use_diapers.htm https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/features/diaper-choices#1
Worst of all, most day cares require the parents to provide them. And without daycare, it’s hard to work. The cycle continues. . One in 5 children, or 13 million, are considered poor in the US. The United States ranks 34th of the 35 developed countries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/04/15/map-how-35-countries-compare-on-child-poverty-the-u-s-is-ranked-34th/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a635f5fa0544
The income gap widens. The poor get poorer and the children of the poor have it the worst. How do we solve this dilemma? We start by electing more and better Democrats.
Virginia - State Senate District 3 - Herbert Jones
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Virginia - House of Delegates District 94 - Shelly Simonds
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Dr. Kevin D Washington Virginia House of Delegates 97th District
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