The short version
- Two lines decide the total: child care, and what your insurance leaves you to pay for the birth.
- With paid child care, the sourced costs come to about $17,000. Without it, about $4,000.
- Start with your health plan's deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. It's the first number to look up.
There's no single price tag for a baby's first year. Your total depends mostly on two things. Do you pay for child care? And what does your health insurance leave you to pay for the birth?
Those two can move the bill more than everything else combined. Below you'll find what reliable data say about each part, in US figures. At the end, there's a one-table budget you can fill in with your own numbers.
What does the birth cost you?
A KFF analysis of large employer health plans compared women who gave birth with women who didn't. Pregnancy, delivery and the months after added $18,865 in health spending on average. The insurer paid most of it.
The average paid out of pocket was $2,854. It depends on the type of delivery:
- cesarean delivery: $3,214 out of pocket on average;
- vaginal delivery: $2,655.
These averages come from claims filed between 2018 and 2020.
Your own number
What you'll pay depends on your plan's deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. That's the first number to look up.
Child care: the biggest line, if you use it
Child Care Aware of America puts the national average price of child care at $13,184 a year in 2025. That's about $1,099 a month.
How heavy is that? It's 10% of the median income of two-parent households. For single-parent households, it's 33%. In most states, infant care costs more than a year of in-state public college tuition.
If a parent stays home
If a parent stays home or family helps, this line can fall to zero. But then your household gives up that parent's pay. That lost income belongs in the same comparison.
Diapers and everyday supplies
The National Diaper Bank Network estimates that disposable diapers cost $80 to $100 a month per child. A newborn can go through up to 12 a day. Over the first year, that's $960 to $1,200.
The costs that depend on you
Wipes, formula if you use it, clothes in sizes that change every few months, extra laundry: they all add up. But they vary too much with your choices for one honest average.
How it all adds up
Put the three sourced lines side by side and one thing jumps out. Paid child care costs more than three times the birth and the diapers combined.
Child care decides the size of the bill
First-year costs from the sourced US figures
- Birth, out of pocket $2,854
- Child care, full year $13,184
- Diapers $960 to $1,200
With paid child care, the three lines come to $16,998 to $17,238 in the first year. Without it, they come to $3,814 to $4,054. Both totals come before the everyday costs that depend on your choices.
What about the long-run average?
The US Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of raising a child. Its latest edition covers children born in 2015.
For a middle-income married couple, yearly spending came to $12,350 to $13,900 per child, in 2015 dollars. The biggest shares were:
- housing: 29%;
- food: 18%;
- child care and education: 16%.
It's an average over all 18 years, and prices have risen since. So read it as a floor for today, not as a first-year budget.
Your first-year budget in one table
| Item | Sourced figure | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Birth, paid out of pocket (large employer plan, average) | $2,854 | once |
| Diapers | $960 to $1,200 | per year |
| Child care, if paid all year (national average) | $13,184 | per year |
| Formula, clothes, gear, extra utilities | depends on your choices | per year |
Swap in your own numbers where you have them. The budget calculator shows how a new monthly cost of this size fits into your income.
How can you lower the first-year bill?
- Check your plan before the due date. Look up the deductible and the out-of-pocket maximum. Then add the baby to the plan within the deadline it sets.
- Pay for child care with pre-tax money. Ask your employer whether it offers a dependent care flexible spending account.
- Borrow short-lived gear. Clothes, a bassinet or a baby bath get used for only a few months. Borrow them or buy second-hand.
- But not the car seat. Use one whose history you know. A seat that has been in a crash may need replacing.
- Keep an emergency fund. The first year brings bills nobody plans for.
Want to start saving for your child's education early? The 529 calculator shows what regular contributions could add up to by age 18.
Sources
- Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, Health costs associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care (July 2022)
- Child Care Aware of America, Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply (May 2026)
- Consumer Reports, citing the National Diaper Bank Network (May 2025)
- USDA, Families projected to spend an average of $233,610 raising a child born in 2015 (January 2017)