Diapers and All, That Bundle of Joy Could Cost a Bundle in N.Y.

NEW YORK â€”  Babies can cost a bundle in the big city.

A report in the July issue of Manhattan, Inc. magazine, said that parents may spend as much as $425,000 if they are raising a newborn in one of the city’s elite neighborhoods.

From the second the child is born, it becomes an eating machine, gobbling up a huge part of a couple’s budget and consuming vast quantities of everything from diapers to doughnuts, the report said.

For starters, parents deliver more than $6,000 in hospital and doctors fees when the baby is born, the magazine noted.

Once the infant is brought home, he or she will dispose of 7,847 diapers at a cost of $2,746 in the first 2 1/2 years, the report said. The child will wear $17,724 worth of clothing by the time he or she turns 21, the magazine said.

Although the baby may start out crawling, parents will run up a $57,000-tab for their offspring for transportation by age 22.

Food bills will grow to at least $136,000 before the child reaches adulthood.

Though a crib may not rock a family budget too much, the magazine estimated that parents who insist on living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side will pay anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 for an additional bedroom.

And if parents are inclined to shun public schools and the city university, they will pay $60,000 for private secondary education and $120,000 for college, the magazine reported.