Right now, it feels like America is being held together with duct tape. We’re living through a steady drumbeat of instability. And in all that chaos, one quiet crisis continues to unfold, largely ignored but deeply damaging.

America has a diaper problem.

Nearly half of all families with young children can’t afford enough diapers to keep their babies clean, dry and healthy. And when diapers run out, the consequences are immediate and compounding: Babies sit in dirty diapers, rashes turn into infections, day care turns kids away, and parents miss shifts and risk losing their jobs. Diaper insecurity is pushing families into impossible trade-offs and deepening cycles of stress and shame.

And yet, our nation’s primary response — diaper banks — was never designed to meet a crisis of this scale. Diaper banks are run by tireless, mission-driven leaders doing essential work under impossible constraints, but the model itself, rooted in outdated charitable logistics and limited supply, cannot carry half the nation on its back.

If we’re serious about ending diaper need in America, we must stop patching holes and start building infrastructure. The diaper bank model has reached its limit.

Diaper banks were built on the food bank blueprint. But while food banks are part of a larger system that leverages surplus from grocery chains and government funding, diaper banks don’t have access to a similar supply stream.

Diapers don’t expire and aren’t overproduced. There is no massive waste pipeline waiting to be diverted. Instead, diaper banks are dependent on donations, of money and product. Much of their inventory comes from one major manufacturer that has heroically provided millions of diapers to many diaper banks nationwide. This generosity helps keep operations running, but it also creates a systemic dependency on a single brand and limits flexibility for families and providers. Meanwhile, other major brands have opted out of participating, in part due to competitive concerns. The result? Potential donations are left on the table, and families are often offered what’s available, not what they actually need. That’s not a scalable or equitable solution.

At its core, the current diaper bank system is structured around warehouse distribution. That means donated diapers are trucked to storage facilities, sorted and handed out at community events or through partner agencies. Families, many without reliable transportation, must find their way to these distribution points, which sometimes are open only a few hours a month. The diapers they receive are typically rationed — 20, maybe 50, per month. That’s enough for a few days. And even then, there’s no guarantee that parents will get the right size or the brand that works for their baby, the one that won’t leak or cause a rash. There’s no consistency. No ability to plan.

Diaper insecurity isn’t just an inconvenience. Children will sit in soiled diapers for too long and develop painful rashes or infections. Mothers experience anxiety, shame and depression. And for many families, especially single parents, diaper shortages mean they can’t send their children to day care because providers require parents to supply a day’s worth of diapers. If they can’t, they miss work. If they miss enough work, they lose their jobs.

This is happening every day. By continuing to pour resources into a system that is outdated, inefficient and unsustainable, we’re holding ourselves back from real progress.

The good news? We don’t need to completely reinvent the wheel — we’ve already seen what could work. A growing number of states are adopting practical solutions that meet families where they are.

In Illinois, the state is embedding a monthly diaper stipend into Women, Infants and Children (WIC) clinics, using public health infrastructure to get diapers to families quickly. California’s CalWORKs program offers a diaper benefit to help parents stay in the workforce by ensuring they’re never turned away from child care for lack of diapers. And in a groundbreaking move, Tennessee recently made diapers a covered Medicaid benefit for infants — treating diaper access not as charity but as public health policy.

These aren’t pilot programs. They’re real, effective and already reaching families. Diaper access keeps babies healthy, parents employed and families afloat. But as Congress moves forward with tax changes and benefit cuts, the most vulnerable families are being left behind — again.

Diapers were never covered, so they’re not being cut. But everything around them is. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Medicaid. Child care. And when those supports disappear, families already stretched thin are pushed past the breaking point.

We don’t need more warehouses and ration lines. We need a 21st century system that treats diaper access as the public health and economic issue it is. That starts with reimagining the central strategy. Diaper banks can and should still play a role as emergency backstops, such as in disaster relief. But they cannot be the front line of a national solution.

We need to:

--Adopt a universal diaper benefit, an electronic benefit transfer-style stipend parents can use anywhere.

--Integrate diaper support into existing programs such as WIC, SNAP and Medicaid.

--Use retail infrastructure for distribution — no new logistics required.

--Focus on choice and dignity, allowing parents to buy what their children need, when and where they need it.

It’s time to stop mistaking stopgaps for solutions. Charity is important and noble. But charity shouldn’t be the foundation of a nation’s child care infrastructure.

If we want to reduce diaper need in America, we need to let go of what feels familiar and invest in what actually works. What’s missing is the courage to act.

Let’s care louder.

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Amy Kadens is founder of the nonprofit initiative Diaper Dollars.

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