Sam Rutledge and his wife have a baby due in mid-July, so they thought they had a few more months to research and buy the gear they鈥檒l need.
But President Donald Trump鈥檚 tariff announcement in early April turned the couple鈥檚 slow walk into a sprint. In the past few weeks, they bought two strollers, a car seat, a nursery glider, a crib and a high chair. All of them are made overseas.
鈥淭hese are all pretty expensive under normal conditions, but when it became clear tariffs were coming we decided to buy them in case they became prohibitively expensive,鈥 said Rutledge, who is a high school physics teacher.
Raising a child in America has never been cheap. In the first year alone, it costs an average of $20,384, according to Baby Center, a parenting website. But tariffs聽鈥 ranging from 10% for imports from most countries to 145% for imports from China聽鈥 will make it many times more expensive for new parents.
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An estimated 90% of the core baby care products and the parts that go into making baby paraphernalia聽鈥 from bottles and diaper pails to strollers and car seats聽鈥 are made in Asia, according to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, a U.S. trade group. The vast majority come from China.
鈥淥verseas manufacturing has been the norm in our industry for decades,鈥 said Lisa Trofe, the association's executive director.
It wasn鈥檛 always this way. When Munchkin Inc. CEO Steven Dunn founded his company in 1991, it made baby bottles in California with tooling from New Jersey. But over the years, the manufacturers he used shut down and the cost of doing business in the U.S. skyrocketed. Now, about 60% of Munchkin鈥檚 500 products, from a $5 sippy cup to a $254 Night Owl Stroller with headlights, are made in China.
In response to the tariffs, Dunn halted orders from China and instituted a hiring freeze at Munchkin鈥檚 California headquarters, where 320 people are employed. Dunn expects Munchkin will run out of some products within three months.
鈥淭here is no possibility of being able to pass on those tariffs鈥 to customers in the form of price increases, he said.
Dunn said he tried to reduce his dependence on China in recent years, shifting some manufacturing to Vietnam and Mexico. He also spent a year communicating with American manufacturers to see if one could make Munchkin鈥檚 new Flow Nipple Shield, which allows a breastfeeding mother to see if her milk is flowing. But most said they couldn鈥檛 make the complex silicone product, Dunn said. It鈥檚 now made in Vietnam.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not enough tool makers and manufacturing expertise and automation and skilled labor in the U.S. to make the thousands of products the juvenile industry needs,鈥 Dunn said.
Multiple baby brands and companies contacted by The Associated Press didn鈥檛 respond or said they weren鈥檛 commenting on the tariffs, including Graco, Chicco, Britax, Nuna, Dorel Juvenile, UppaBaby, Evenflo and Bugaboo.
The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association said it asked the Trump administration for a tariff exemption, arguing that baby products are essential for children's well-being. Trump exempted some baby products, including car seats and high chairs, from import taxes during his first administration. But he hasn't said whether he would consider doing so again.
The Associated Press left a message seeking comment with the White House.
Nurture&, a company that makes a popular nursery glider and other baby furniture, said it鈥檚 trying to be transparent about the impact of tariffs.
In a recent email, the company told customers it started lowering prices on some items when the tariffs hit. The company, which was founded in 2020, said it would keep those lower prices in place until April 30, but after that it may not be able to absorb the full cost of the import duties.
鈥淭hese are large purchases, these are investments, and this is a very sensitive life stage,鈥 Nurture& Chief Merchant Jill Gruys said. 鈥淲e want people to make the best decision for their budget and their family.鈥
Elizabeth Mahon, the owner of Three Littles, a baby store in Washington, said she鈥檚 worried the tariffs will make essential products too expensive for some families.
Mahon volunteers twice per month at the Department of Motor Vehicles, where she teaches people how to buckle their kids safely into car seats. Some families still must be persuaded to use car seats, she said. Mahon fears higher prices would be another deterrent.
鈥淣o one is dying if they can鈥檛 buy a toy, but if they don鈥檛 have access to car seats, kids will get seriously injured,鈥 she said.
At her own store, Mahon is getting notices that some manufacturers plan to introduce steep price increases in May. She feels lucky she could rent a storage facility and build up inventory ahead of the tariffs. For many small businesses, she said, the extra costs are 鈥渁 death sentence.鈥
At The Little Seedling baby shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, owner Molly Ging said she would normally be putting in Christmas orders at this time of year. Instead, she鈥檚 sorting through price increase notices from many of the vendors she works with.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot to manage, and I just have no idea how it鈥檚 going to play out,鈥 she said.
Business is brisk right now, with customers hoping to beat tariff-related price increases. But Ging worries about her 13 employees聽鈥 all moms who bring their kids to work聽鈥 and about whether she can maintain enough inventory to meet future demand.
鈥淏abies don鈥檛 stop being born because there鈥檚 tariffs,鈥 she said.
