Baby’s first year costs €10K
Parents are spending more than €10,000 in a baby’s first year, a survey published this year found. They may be the priceless, but they certainly cost a bit!
The research with over 1,450 parents concluded that the average expenditure on baby from birth to their first birthday totted up to €10,546.
The BabyDoc Club parents calculated their actual average spend across 12 universal baby spend categories at €6,076 for the first year of life. When six months full-time childcare was included for the 61 per cent of working parents, the total cost of meeting baby's needs in the first 12-months came to €10,546.
Supporting parents as they prepare to bring their baby into the world, BabyDoc Club launched its Baby Basics Pregnancy & Newborn Guide to complement its cost of baby research.
Baby equipment can be expensive and the choices parents make should last for years. The BabyDoc Basics Guide gives parents a preview of what to expect, a list of what they actually need and some advice to help them along the way. The guide is available to download for free from the BabyDoc Club website and comes with a guarantee that no retailer or brand has paid to appear in the publication.
The BabyDoc Cost of Baby research revealed the most expensive purchase for the most parents is the baby's travel system including a car seat with over €1,000 being spent by 53 per cent of parents. Racking up the next biggest bill is baby's nursery furniture with four in ten parents spending between €500 to €1,000 on cots, cribs, wardrobes, changing stations and décor. Gifts from grandparents helped over a quarter of parents when it came to procuring their baby basics.
While parents are generally happy to buy some baby essentials second-hand, 94 per cent insist on buying baby's bedding brand new. Baby's car seat must also be new for 89 per cent of parents and the buggy for 73 per cent of parents. Baby clothing was generally accepted as the best baby basic to buy secondhand for 61 per cent of parents. This is because babies grow so fast during the first 12 months, moving up a size every three months.
Parenting Expert with BabyDoc Club, Laura Erskine said: “It's easy to see why almost two-thirds of BabyDoc parents are happy to use pre-loved baby clothes seeing as they are gently worn for such a short period. The decision to buy new when it comes to the car seat, buggy and bedding is perfectly understandable as this is where parents are putting their baby's health and safety ahead of any financial concerns.”
Laura added: “No parent would ever knowingly put their baby's life in danger, however there is a significant risk in using a second-hand car seat which may have been mishandled or in an undisclosed accident.
“Using a mattress passed down from a sibling or friend increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS that can occur in baby's first 12 months of life. This is because a baby needs a firm mattress surface for safe sleep and research shows that a mattress can lose up to 25 per cent of its firmness in the first couple of years of use,” concluded Laura.