Hello, data fans! This was more targeted for future parents and personal finance enthusiast, I thought it might be appreciated here as well, so here we go!

When our baby was on the way, I tried to find out what the formula and diapers will cost. After all, this is one expensive journey, and it's good to be prepared! There are multiple estimates out there that vary widely, so I always wanted to see what it will actually cost.

That is when an idea to track it all came up. When my daughter was born, I became a man possessed.

Not by sleep deprivation.
Not by baby wipes.
By data.

🍼 Every bottle fed.
💩 Every diaper changed.
📈 Every ounce tracked — for 14 straight months.

There are multiple apps on appstores that you can use to replicate it. Me and my wife used an app called 'Baby Tracker' by Nighp Software for iOS. Free version is absolutely enough, unless ads bother you or you need watch integration. Ads are not intrusive though and apple watch screen is too small to bother with in when you're in the middle of changing diapers anyway, so stick with free version.

Now, for the data.

Here’s what it actually costs.

1. Formula

Over the first 14 months, our baby drank 10,876 ounces of milk. That is roughly 322 liters or 85 gallons.

Milk consumption chart

Some notes:

• Around 4 months, we started purees and food other than milk.
• Around 8-9 months, we peaked with milk consumption with baby eating around 35 ounces a day
• Around 8-9 months, we started feeding her more and more of what we ate, with that trend accelerating once the baby went off formula after 1st birthday.

Milk cost

Now for the cost calculation. This can vary a lot based on what formula you're using. We were using Hipp formula that tends to cost around $45 for 800g. It takes around 4.3 g of that formula to prepare 1 oz of milk.

• 1 gram of formula = $0.05625 or 5.625 cents
• 4.3 grams of formula = $0.241875 or 24.1875 cents
• So it costs 24.1875 cents to prepare 1 oz of milk
• Organic whole milk is $5 for 64 oz, so $0.078125 or 7.8125 cents

So with these assumptions:

Cost of milk per ounce

This is the monthly cost:

Cost of milk calculation

For a total cost of $2829 for formula and $79 for whole milk for a grand total of $2908.

Notes:

• Baby actually drank 85.6% of served milk, or $2489 worth of it
• It means $419 basically put down the drain.
• You can potentially get some savings if you prepare less milk at a time to avoid spoilage, but you risk baby crying in the middle of the night waiting for more milk while you try to save a dollar here or there – carefully weight your choices haha

2. Diapers

Over the first 14 months, the baby went through 3349 diapers.

Diapers changed by month

Some notes:

• We primarily used Huggies with wetness indicator which was super helpful. A few times, we've used diapers without it, and it was a bit of a guessing game as to when it was necessary to change the diaper.
• We always changed the diaper when dirty.
• When it was wet, we estimated how full it was, without trying to test the limits. We'd rather change a few more diapers than deal with leaks. I guess if you pushed the diapers closer to the limit, it could decrease the numbers but you risk a diaper rash and an uncomfortable baby (good diaper cream is expensive).
• The jump in month 12 is due to a nasty norovirus that went through the daycare. It hit children, staff, AND parents. Don't ask…

Fun data points:

• 18 – Most diapers changed in a day. That was when the baby was 4 days old. We were then informed by the pediatrician that we could perhaps try relaxing a bit and change the diapers less frequently.
• 14 – Most diapers changed in a day after we realized there is no need to change it that frequently. That was in the period when baby got norovirus and there were many dirty diapers.
• 2246 – Wet only diapers
• 1103 – Dirty/Mixed diapers

Diapers cost

There are many different brands for every budget. We stuck to Huggies from the beginning because these worked the best for us. You can look for deals on big sizes on ebay, use subscribe and save on amazon, stock up on black friday, prime day, etc, buying for weeks/months ahead. Based on our estimated, a blended cost of one diaper in this time was around 27 cents, or $0.27.

Using that for calculation, this is what I get:

Diaper cost by month

Total cost is $904 for 14 months.

Total Cost – Formula, milk, and diapers

Between formula, milk, and diapers, it all comes down to about $3812 for the first 14 months. That does not include wipes, diaper cream, lotions, body wash, clothes, any other foods like purees, finger foods, and a lot of other things.

Please remember this is just one data point for one baby on one type of milk and one kind of diapers. The cost of diapers can easily double if you go for something fancy like Coterie.

This kind of tracking isn’t for everyone. But for me? It helped turn chaos into clarity. I've always liked tracking various data points in my life and although it wasn't always easy, my wife and I stuck to logging everything all this time for our baby. We have a 2nd baby on the way and we're planning to track its numbers for comparison so expect me back in some time!