For some cash-strapped parents in Berkshire County, a new “diaper bank” this week started providing the very needed, basic necessity.

Government assistance programs, like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children – or WIC, attempt to provide nutrition basics. But when it comes to diapering a baby, there’s no such assistance.

Dr. Marie Rudden is with the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge and an organizer of the Berkshire Community Diaper Project.

“Parents will try to stretch out the diapers if they can’t afford new ones,” Rudden says. “So the kids get uncomfortable, they can get rashes, they’re smelly sometimes. And it can be a setup at times for situations of neglect or even abuse.”

Rudden says many of the struggling parents succumb to stress and mental health issues. A Yale study found one out of every three low-income families struggle to buy diapers.