The short answer
We donated 2,000 newborn essentials to Baby2Baby's maternal health programme, which supplies mothers and newborns who cannot afford the basics.
Two thousand items is a small number, and we want to be straight about that before anything else. Baby2Baby serves more than a million children a year. Our contribution is a rounding error against the need. The reason to write about it is not the size of the donation — it is that most people have no idea how large and how ordinary this shortage is, and that gap is worth closing.
The number that reframes everything
Ask most parents to guess how many American families with young children cannot afford enough nappies, and they will guess something like one in twenty.
The National Diaper Bank Network's Diaper Check, run with YouGov, puts it at close to one in two.
| Group | Reporting nappy insecurity |
|---|---|
| US families with children under four in nappies (2024) | 46% |
| Low-income households | 62% |
| High-income households | 9% |
| Affected mothers reporting stress or anxiety | 77% |
That last row is the one that changes how you read the others. This is not only a supply problem. Running out of nappies is a daily, recurring, entirely visible failure to meet a baby's most basic need, and it lands on the same person every time.
The 9% figure matters too, for a different reason. Nappy insecurity reaches households that do not consider themselves poor. It is a cash-flow problem as much as a poverty problem, which is why it is so much more common than most people assume.
Why nappies are the thing that runs out
There is a structural reason this particular item causes so much trouble, and it is not obvious from outside.
- They cannot be bought with food assistance. In the US, nappies are not covered by SNAP or WIC, so the cost has to come out of cash a family may not have that week.
- Buying small costs more. A family short on cash buys the small pack, which has the worst unit price. Nappy insecurity makes nappies more expensive.
- Nurseries require a supply. Many childcare settings will not accept a child without nappies for the day. No nappies can mean no childcare, which can mean no shift, which means less money.
- There is no substitute. A thin week can mean cheaper food. It cannot mean fewer nappy changes without a baby developing a rash or an infection.
That last link is the one that turns a budget problem into a health problem, and it is why the organisations working on this treat nappies as a medical supply rather than a convenience.
What we sent, and why not money
Baby2Baby's maternal health work assembles supply kits for mothers and newborns. We contributed 2,000 pieces of newborn essentials towards those kits.
We are often asked why a clothing company donates clothing rather than writing a cheque, and the honest answer has two halves. A cheque is usually more useful to a large distributor, because it buys exactly what is short that month at wholesale rates. But newborn basics are something we already make to a known standard and can supply new, in size, and in quantity — which is different from a company clearing out what it could not sell.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Donated goods are only useful if they are the right goods.
The 9% is the row worth staring at
Nine per cent of high-income households reporting nappy insecurity looks like a data error. It is not, and understanding why explains more about this problem than the headline figure does.
A new baby produces a collision that almost nothing else in adult life does: income drops and spending peaks in the same month. One parent stops earning, or drops to partial pay, or leaves work entirely — at precisely the moment the household adds a recurring weekly cost it has never carried before. The gap does not open because a family is poor. It opens because the timing is brutal.
Three things make that gap harder to close than it looks:
- It arrives before the budget adjusts. Households plan on last year's income. The first months of a baby are the months where that plan is least accurate.
- It is invisible. A family that has never needed help does not know what exists, where to ask, or that a nappy bank is a normal thing to use rather than a last resort.
- Nobody says it out loud. Of affected mothers, 77% report stress or anxiety — and being unable to afford your baby's nappies is not something most people will admit to family, let alone ask about.
That is why campaigns on this subject spend so much effort simply telling people the shortage is common. Half of all families with young children is not a marginal group. It is the normal experience, and treating it as a rare misfortune is part of what keeps people from asking.
Why clearing out the wardrobe helps less than you would think
There is an uncomfortable mismatch at the centre of children's charity, and it explains why the thing people most want to give is rarely the thing most needed.
Baby clothes are the most over-supplied donation category there is. A newborn size is worn for a few weeks, which means it comes out of the wardrobe barely used and in enormous quantity. Every family with a baby generates a bag of it. Multiply that across a city and the receiving end has more newborn clothing than it can move.
Consumables run the opposite way. A nappy is used once. Wipes are used once. There is no second-hand supply and there never will be, because nothing is left over. So the item that every family has a surplus of is the item charities are least short of, and the item nobody has a surplus of is the one that runs out every week.
| Used baby clothes | Nappies and wipes | |
|---|---|---|
| Second-hand supply | Very large — small sizes are outgrown in weeks | None. Consumed on first use |
| Cost to the charity | Sorting, checking, storing, disposing of what cannot be used | Distribution only |
| Typical shortfall | Rare in common sizes | Constant |
The middle row is the part donors almost never see. A donated garment is not free to receive. Somebody opens the bag, checks the condition, sorts by size, sets aside what is stained or bobbled, and pays to dispose of that portion. Give twenty good items and you have helped. Give twenty mixed with ten unusable ones and you have handed over a sorting job along with the gift.
None of this means used clothing is unwelcome — specific sizes do run short, and a labelled box of clean, sorted items in a size they need is genuinely useful. It means the instinct to help and the act of helping are two different things, and only one of them starts with asking what is short.
If you want to give, give well
Most people's instinct is to donate the baby clothes their own children have outgrown. That is a good instinct and it is often mishandled, in ways that quietly create work for the receiving organisation instead of relieving it.
- Check what they actually want before you pack. Most organisations publish a list. Nappies, wipes and new items in packaging are almost always needed; used clothing frequently is not.
- Never pass on anything recalled. Recalled children's products must not be resold or given away, and safety recalls on cots, sleep products and clothing with cords are more common than most parents realise.
- Wash it, and be honest about condition. Stained or bobbled clothing gets sorted out at the other end, at their cost, not yours.
- Sort by size and label the box. An unsorted sack of mixed sizes is hours of volunteer time. A labelled box is minutes.
- Consider giving cash to a nappy bank instead. They buy at rates you cannot get, and they know what is short this week.
The full version of this — which piles go where, what charities cannot legally accept, and what should never be passed to anyone — is in what to do with baby clothes once they are outgrown.
What this article does not claim
This describes one donation to one organisation. It is not a review of Baby2Baby, and we are not in a position to audit how any nonprofit spends its resources — look at their published reporting rather than at ours.
The nappy figures are US survey data from the National Diaper Bank Network with YouGov. Nappy costs and benefit rules differ elsewhere, so the 46% figure does not transfer to other countries.
We are a children's clothing company writing about our own donation, which is a position with an obvious interest attached. We have given the figure plainly, including the part where it is small, so you can weigh it yourself.
Frequently asked questions
What did PatPat donate? Two thousand pieces of newborn essentials to Baby2Baby's maternal health programme, which supplies kits to mothers and newborns in need.
Who is Baby2Baby? It is a US nonprofit serving more than a million children a year, providing nappies, clothing and basic necessities.
Is 2,000 items a lot? No. Against an organisation serving over a million children annually it is very small, which is why this page spends more time on the need than on the donation.
How common is nappy insecurity? The National Diaper Bank Network's 2026 Diaper Check puts it at close to one in two US families with young children; in 2024 the figure was 46%.
Why can't families use food assistance for nappies? Nappies are excluded from both SNAP and WIC, so the cost has to come out of cash.
Why is running out of nappies a health issue? Stretching a nappy leads to rashes and infections. There is no way to use fewer of them without a cost to the baby.
Does it affect only low-income families? No. Nine per cent of high-income households report it too, because it is a cash-flow problem as much as an income one.
What is the best thing for an individual to donate? Usually cash to a nappy bank, which buys at rates individuals cannot, followed by new nappies and wipes in packaging.
Can I donate used baby clothes? Sometimes, but check the organisation's list first. Many need new items far more than used clothing, and unsorted donations cost them volunteer hours.
What should never be donated? Anything subject to a safety recall, anything with cords at the neck, and anything you would not put on your own child.
Why donate goods rather than money? For us, because newborn basics are something we can supply new, in size and in quantity. For an individual, cash is usually the better choice.
Is this an ongoing partnership? Our contribution to date is the 2,000-piece donation described here. We would rather state what has happened than describe intentions.
About this article
Written and checked by the PatPat Editorial Team. How we research, source and review what we publish is described on our editorial standards page.
Method. The donation figure is ours. Every statistic about nappy insecurity comes from published survey data and is linked below, so that the scale of the problem is not something you have to take from a brand's own account of its giving.
Sources. Nappy insecurity rates, income breakdown and the stress finding: National Diaper Bank Network, Diaper Check 2026 and NDBN, diaper need in America. The organisation and its programmes: Baby2Baby.
Related. Where outgrown clothes should actually go, and what charities cannot accept, is in what to do with old baby clothes; how many sleep items a newborn genuinely needs is in how many baby pyjamas you need.
Last updated 18 September 2026 · Next review September 2027
