When we were preparing to be parents, there were lots of questions floating around our minds. Who would the baby look like? What’s the difference between a bouncer and a jumper? Why on God’s green earth did anyone think it was a good idea to tell a pregnant lady the approximate size of the “fruit” she would birth each week? (Pomegranate: Awww. Watermelon: Panic-inducing. Like, have you ever really looked at a watermelon?)
We also really wanted to know what we could expect to spend caring for an infant each week as we put together our plans for me to leave work (and my paycheck!) for a period of time. Unfortunately, all I could find was this roaring debate: one side says each kid costs $233,610, while the other says they can be had for a bargain. What I wanted were cold, hard numbers. Yet, they were nowhere to be found. Until now. Here’s what we are spending per week to care for a three-month infant.
Good Eats
Some people—including at least one post written by a male blogger—will tell you that it’s so easy to feed a baby for free. And I have some serious side eye for you. There’s nothing easy about breastfeeding. I promise you that.
Currently, we supplement with about 6-8 ounces of formula a day. Some days it’s a bit more; others, there’s none at all. After over a month of guessing and checking and lots of help from our pediatrician, we finally found a soy formula that agrees with him. Now if he could just figure out how to shake the Little Stinker nickname he acquired.
Must-Haves: nursery water, powdered formula
Squeaky Clean Jelly Bean
Let’s talk number 1 and number 2. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’m going to make my fortune by inventing diaper half sizes. There’s nothing worse than being in between sizes. While we’re still guessing and checking which diaper brands fit well and meet our criteria (fragrance-free, no chlorine etc.), we’ve currently settled on the Up & Up brand of diapers and wipes from Target. If you’re not in the know, that’s like my Toyota. Nothing flashy but reliable.
There’s also this little thing called laundry. Some weeks, there’s a lot. Other weeks, you think you must be washing the neighbor kid’s clothes, too, because where else could this mountain have come from. And on really fun occasions, the messes are so big, you don’t even worry about laundry. Instead, baby goes right in the bathtub.
Must-Haves: diapers, wipes, bath soap, laundry detergent
Feeling Good in the Neighborhood
To say there have been some tummy troubles would not do justice to some of the rumbles that rate on the Richter scale. As a result, we use over-the-counter gas drops and a prescription for baby Zantac. Neither are terribly expensive now that I’ve stopped buying the drops at Walgreens and since we have drug coverage for our insurance. However, the Cadillac and Rolls Royce of tummy medicine are Vitamin D drops and probiotics, respectively. The Vitamin D drops were $14, but they should last several months. The probiotics, though, are liquid gold. A 15-day dose is approximately $16 and shakes out to $85/ounce. What.
Must-Haves: gas drops, probiotics, Vitamin D drops, prescription acid reflux medicine
| Item | Cost/Use | Cost/Day | Cost/Week |
| Formula + water (Up & Up Target brand) | $0.084/ounce | $0.67 | $4.72 |
| Diapers (Up & Up Target brand) | $0.128/diaper | $1.02 | $7.16 |
| Wipes (Up & Up Target brand) | $0.017/wipe | $0.34 | $2.36 |
| Baby soap (Burt’s Bees Baby) | $0.21 | $1.09 | |
| Laundry detergent (Seventh Generation baby) | $0.27 | $1.36 | |
| Gas drops (Up & Up Target brand) | $0.04 | $0.24 | $1.68 |
| Vitamin D drops (Carlson) | $0.16 | $0.16 | $1.12 |
| Baby Zantac (generic Rx) | $0.08 | $0.16 | $1.12 |
| Probiotics (Mommy’s Bliss) | $1.06 | $1.06 | $7.47 |
| **These figures are rounded, which means it’s an approximation, not an indictment of my inability to teach math. | |||
Now, this chart makes a lot of assumptions. Like we will only use 10 diapers or 20 wipes a day or only need to do five loads of laundry and give five baths a week. Real talk: Sometimes, I suspect my husband uses 20 wipes in one shot. Real real talk: Sometimes, I understand why. Oh, and the record for baths is currently three in one day.
Final Thoughts on Weekly Infant Costs
As with most things when it comes to babies, your results may vary. Shoot, my results vary. Right now, though, it looks like we spend about $28 a week to keep baby watered and fed, so to speak. Of course, an entirely formula-fed baby would cost more to feed, and a neater baby might require less laundry and wipes. It’s also worth pointing out that there are plenty of other costs not factored in here from clothes and bottles to diaper cream and Infant Tylenol. Still, if you’re looking for a ballpark figure as you plan your maternity leave, this should be a decent starting point when it comes to determining the weekly cost of caring for an infant.
The big expenses are dependent on your situation. Ie is everyone healthy or is there added health care needs for Mommy or baby? Also is paid daycare needed. Avoid those and your costs should be relatively low in the near term.
Yes. Health matters so much. And daycare. We are so fortunate to have family volunteering to watch him this first year. We will still pay them, but it will be significantly less than daycare. I’ll do a tally of our hospital bills soon (as long as they don’t keep coming in…yikes!).
I may have been murdered (and rightfully so) if I dropped the breastfeeding is easy card. Shaking formula in a bottle…. easy. Feeding breastmilk after your wife did all the hard working getting it……easy.
We have started switching to formula (6.5 months later) and it is fricken expensive! We are enjoying the convenience factor however.
Thanks for putting this together – I remember looking for concrete information and struggling to find useful and relatable numbers
I’m happy to hear that HPs tummy troubles are fixed now. I haven’t tried to Up and Up brand, we don’t have target up here anymore in Canada 🙁 but that’s a pretty good price for diapers! Wow I didn’t know that probiotic drops are so expensive. We haven’t had to use any so far. Thanks for sharing your weekly costs log!
Thanks so much! They’re relatively fixed. The soy helped a lot, and I’ve given up dairy for two months now. Of all the store brands (Walgreens, local grocery chain, Aldi, and now Target), we really like Up & Up. Plus, they’re very transparent with what goes in their wipes and they answered me right away when I inquired about animal testing!
Pretty good numbers, thank you for sharing.
After 4 weeks of giving breastfeeding a go, we threw in the towel and went exclusively with formula…premixed formula at that. It made life a lot easier for all parties involved, but by the time we got Little Bit on solids, we were spending $20 a week or so just on food. and that was ordering from Diapers.com by 4 cases at a time.
The cheapest price I’ve found on simethecone (baby gas drops) is $3.99 ($3.49 on sale regularly) for 1 oz at Kroger (Comforts For Baby Infant Gas Relief Drops).
That’s such a deal. I was paying $11 at Walgreens! We don’t have Kroger out here, so Target will have to do. But I always love having price points for comparison. Thanks, Angela!
I think the quarter million number is fairly accurate. We have a 14 year old girl (girls are a little more expensive on the clothes side of things) and think that number is about where it is headed. This includes all the front end stuff and the figuring out what works for food and cleaning and what doesn’t, as well as day care, entertainment, other medical, school stuff (supplies, clothes/uniforms, lunches/snacks), transportation (he will ride a bike and, all too soon, drive). What that number does not include is college. If you haven’t run that number, wait for wine time 🙂
Still, the adventure is so much fun and so absolutely exhausting.
Fwiw, the vitamin D drops we bought have actually lasted us through to this baby, and I expect them to expire before gone. We may have different brands, but you may be surprised how far they go!
I highly recommend Aldi diapers too, if you live close to one. We used only Target brand for a long time, as they were the cheapest. Then Aldi started selling them and they were just as good, but cheaper.
I have 3 kids and I think that kids do cost, but I don’t think they have to be expensive. Especially as you have more, many things can be reused. We made sure to go the gender neutral route on many baby items with our first for this reason.
Yes! We’ve had a lot of luck with Aldi diapers as well. Target is running a lot of their gift card promos right now, so Up & Up seems to be a hair cheaper. But I will happily use either! I love Aldi wipes, too. I’m excited to try out their baby “food” down the road (the little yogurt bites look so cute!). Gender neutral is great advice. I’m pretty obsessed with gray, so it’s worked out well at least clothing wise!
This looks like a really good breakdown. We were fortunate that someone put together a little gift basket of a lot of these supplies for us (gas drops, Zantac, probiotics, etc.) and it may become my go to baby shower gift for others because it has been so useful.
And I totally hear you on the half diaper sizes!! Half sizes —> Major blowouts —> more laundry —> repeat. I’m hoping I’m on the end of one of those transitions… gotta love parenthood. 🙂
That’s a great gift basket idea. I’m making a mental list of all the things that I could do once a registry is bought out! So many things to think about.