The short answer
We donated 2,000 newborn essentials to Baby2Baby's maternal health program, 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
It is easy to assume that families who cannot afford enough diapers are a small minority.
The National Diaper Bank Network's Diaper Check 2026, a nationally representative survey conducted by SSRS, puts it at 40% — two in five. The 2024 edition, run with YouGov, found 46%.
| Group | Reporting diaper insecurity |
|---|---|
| US families with children under four in diapers (2024 / 2026) | 46% / 40% |
| Low-income households (2026) | 62% |
| High-income households, $150,000+ (2026) | 9% |
| Mothers with diaper insecurity who feel stressed or anxious when they cannot afford enough (2024) | 79% |
That last row is the one that changes how you read the others. This is not only a supply problem. Running out of diapers 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. Diaper 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 diapers 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, diapers 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. Diaper insecurity makes diapers more expensive.
- Daycares require a supply. Many child care centers will not accept a child without diapers for the day. No diapers 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 diaper 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 organizations working on this treat diapers 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 toward those kits.
It is fair to ask why a clothing company donates clothing rather than writing a check, and the honest answer has two halves. A check 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 percent of high-income households reporting diaper 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 diaper bank is a normal thing to use rather than a last resort.
- Nobody says it out loud. In the 2024 Diaper Check, 79% of mothers with diaper insecurity said they feel stressed or anxious when they cannot afford enough diapers — and being unable to afford your baby's diapers 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. Two in five families with young children is not a marginal group. It is a common 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 center of children's charity, and it explains why the thing people most want to give is rarely the thing most needed.
Baby clothes are one of the most over-supplied donation categories. 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 diaper 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 | Diapers 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 pilled, 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 labeled 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 organization instead of relieving it.
- Check what they actually want before you pack. Most organizations publish a list. Diapers, 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 cribs, sleep products and clothing with cords are more common than most parents realize.
- Wash it, and be honest about condition. Stained or pilled 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 labeled box is minutes.
- Consider giving cash to a diaper 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 organization. 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 diaper figures are US survey data from the National Diaper Bank Network, collected with YouGov (2024) and SSRS (2026). Diaper 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 program, 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 diapers, clothing and basic necessities.
Is 2,000 items a lot? No. Against an organization 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 diaper insecurity? The National Diaper Bank Network's 2026 Diaper Check puts it at 40% of US households with children under four in diapers; the 2024 edition found 46%.
Why can't families use food assistance for diapers? Diapers are excluded from both SNAP and WIC, so the cost has to come out of cash.
Why is running out of diapers a health issue? Stretching a diaper 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 percent 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 diaper bank, which buys at rates individuals cannot, followed by new diapers and wipes in packaging.
Can I donate used baby clothes? Sometimes, but check the organization'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 diaper 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. Diaper insecurity rates, income breakdown and the stress finding: National Diaper Bank Network, Diaper Check 2026 (40%, income breakdown), Diaper Check 2024 (46%, the 79% stress finding) and NDBN, diaper need in America. The organization and its programs: 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 pajamas you need.
Corrections, 20 October 2026. We corrected the diaper-need figures and labeled each with its survey year: the 2026 National Diaper Bank Network survey was run by SSRS and found 40 percent of families with young children affected; 46 percent and 79 percent come from the 2024 survey run with YouGov.
Last updated 20 October 2026 · Next review October 2027
