This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox’s newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions.

Having a baby is expensive.

You need a car seat. A stroller. A high chair. You need the baby shampoo and then the different baby shampoo for when your baby is allergic to the baby shampoo (maybe just me?).

All told, it costs about $20,000 to care for a baby for a year in the US, according to BabyCenter. And thanks to the slate of new tariffs announced on April 2 by the Trump administration and imposed in recent days, it’s about to get a lot more expensive.

Trump reversed some tariffs on Wednesday after markets plunged, but went on to increase tariffs on China to 125 percent, while maintaining a 10 percent baseline tariff on goods from nearly all other countries. The tariffs will affect a wide variety of goods, but experts and advocates have voiced special concern about baby items like cribs and strollers, many of which are manufactured overseas, often in China. These items aren’t optional: “The baby has to sleep somewhere,” Martha Gimbel, executive director and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale, told me.

Even after Trump’s partial reversal, parents could have to contend with myriad price increases for smaller items, from onesies to blueberries. The Budget Lab, which analyzes the impact of federal policy proposals, has estimated the tariffs announced as of April 2 could cost an average household $3,800 per year, or $73 per week, a cost that could hit families especially hard during the early years of parenthood, already a time of enormous financial upheaval.

“The Trump administration maintains regular contact with business leaders, industry groups, and everyday Americans, especially about major policy decisions like President Trump’s reciprocal tariff action,” White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai wrote in an email in response to my question about tariffs and costs. “The only special interest guiding President Trump’s decision-making, however, is the best interest of the American people — such as addressing the national emergency posed by our country running chronic trade deficits.”

Trump’s concern with trade deficits is at odds with some of his other stated priorities. He has said “we want more babies” in America, and advisers and members of his administration have repeatedly advocated for boosting birth rates. But Trump’s tariff........

© Vox