We’ve yet to really see the much-anticipated tariff-driven bump in prices come through in official inflation data, but a new Congressional analysis just found that the cost of goods in one spending category is already rising because of tariffs: baby gear.

Since the beginning of April, the cost of the five most common things new parents buy — car seats, bassinets, strollers, highchairs and baby monitors — has gone up nearly 25%. The vast majority of those goods are made in China. 

Everything Sarah Wells sells is made in China — she owns Sarah Wells Bags in Fairfax, Virginia. It’s a “13-year-old small business that makes both breast feeding apparel and bags to transport your breast pump,” she said.

Wells has been working with the same factory in China to make those bags the whole time she’s been in business. The last time she placed an order was right after the holidays. It made it onto a container ship in February and cleared customs in March.

“We were hit with that very first 20% additional tariff from 2025, which amounted to over $15,000 of surprise tariff at the port,” she said.

Wells couldn’t absorb that unexpected cost, so she’s had to raise her prices 10% to 15%. And that was before the president announced he was raising tariffs on Chinese imports even more. 

Since then, David Jacobs, co-owner of a children’s store in Brooklyn called Mini Jake, said most manufacturers he works with have raised prices between 10% and 20% — or more.

So he has too. So far, customers are still buying.

“But I think people are less inclined to buy the highest priced items, and are looking at alternatives that are lower priced,” he said.

But with certain things, Lisa Gennetian at Duke University said parents only have so much choice.

“A lot of these items are not preferences, per se, right? They're not want-to-haves, they're must-haves. You can't leave a hospital with a baby without proof of a car seat, right?” she said.

Even before tariffs, she said, baby gear was pricey. Now it’s even more of a stretch.

Sarah Wells in Virginia hears that every day, from parents who buy her breast pump bags.

“I think some families will be forced to make decisions like using a car seat that's past its expiration date,” she said, instead of buying a new, safer one.