What It Involves and What It Costs?

 Child Care: What It Involves and What It Costs

When parents consider care for their children, just what that care entails and how much it costs are the questions usually uppermost in their minds. It's not a bad idea to sit down and figure out what the costs will be, and what you'll be paying for. There are exceptions, of course, and not everyone is the same. And there are significant variations depending on your location. 

Here are some general guidelines to help you better understand what child care involves.

1. Childbirth

The expenses of child care actually begin before birth; but we'll start here. If you give birth in a hospital, sources say it can cost anywhere from $3,500 to $8,050, depending on the extent of the care needed. C-sections are more expensive than vaginal births. If you choose to have a homebirth, a midwife is usually much less - around $3,000 to $5,000 for the entire package, which includes prenatal care. 

2. Daycare

For many parents, daycare is necessary. For full-time care, you can expect to pay anywhere from $125 to $200 per week. A nanny will likely cost more, but home-based child care (such as a babysitter) might be more affordable. 

3. Diapers

Before you get to daycare, there are diapers - lots of diapers! Cloth diapering is considered the least expensive choice, even when you factor in the water and energy costs of washing them. The initial investment for cloth diapers is around $200 for a set of ten; including three-times-a-week washing and energy costs, you can expect around $400 for the whole package. After that, you only pay for the washing. Disposable diapers can easily cost $80 a month, depending on how many kids you have in diapers. They average $20 a package. 

4. Food - Formula, Breastfeeding, Solids

It's probably obvious that breastfeeding is less expensive than formula feeding. When you feed formula, you have to buy cans of it repeatedly, and if your child has food allergies, it can get extremely pricey. Formula averages around $20 to $25 a can for the "typical" stuff. 

Expect to pay more for jarred foods than homemade ones. A 5-ounce jar of baby food costs between $1 and $2, depending on the kind of food. For example, say a 5-ounce jar of pureed carrots costs $1.50. Yet you can buy a 1-pound bag of raw carrots for a similar price.

5. Clothing

In the realm of clothing, the costs vary so much that's hard to make an estimation. Buying your baby and child everything he or she needs from the retailer, brand new, will cost significantly more than using hand-me-downs, making your own clothes, or getting used clothes at yard sales and second-hand shops. The differences are enormous. The average is around $35 a month for clothing per child according to scholarly research. But you can "beat" this easily by some of the methods mentioned earlier - yard sales, hand-sewing clothes, and so forth. 

These are just a few of the costs of child care. Entertainment, extracurricular activities, hobbies, birthday parties...the list could go on and on! This is just intended as a basic guideline to help you get a handle on what you're looking at cost-wise when it comes to child care.