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HEALTHCARE
COVERAGE

Bridging the Diaper Gap:

How our Diaper Rash Intervention

Saved Families Money

By Maryann England and Ashley Chakales

T exas has about 4 million

people who lack health in-
surance, nearly 600,000 of
which are children, and 3.7 million
people who live below the poverty
1,2
line. San Antonio and surrounding
areas are not immune to this. Nowa-
days, raising a child in America poses
many challenges. In addition to the
breast milk shortage and adequate
healthcare coverage, diapers and other
baby changing supplies are expensive.
We want to share with San Antonio
Medicine magazine readers how our
intervention in Lytle, Texas saved
families money each month, by pro-
viding information on preventing di-
aper rash and free diapers and
supplies.
We chose to work in Lytle, because
of its location and population. Lytle,
Texas is a small town outside of San
Antonio, located 25 miles away from
the nearest diaper bank. Based on our
research, the majority population in
Lytle does not have health insurance
and their income is $25,000 per year or
3
lower. The clients we served were re-
ceiving benefits from other govern-
ment-funded programs such as the
Special Supplemental Nutrition Pro-
gram for Women, Infants and Chil-
dren (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) and Med-
icaid. We spread the word about our services by distributing flyers at local Day, a non-profit organization we partnered with for this project. They
daycare centers and clinics. Recently, we started working with the Mayor helped us by providing contact information and baby diaper sizes. A
of Lytle, Ruben Gonzalez and the Superintendent, Michelle Smith to Brighter Day called participants the week of the distribution of diapers
target a wider audience. People who were interested contacted A Brighter and other supplies to remind the community about our event.

14 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • September 2022