The average median family income in the U.S, is 40K
The California Octuplets are everywhere. You can’t get away from them. They’re on every news show, talk show, morning show, late night show, and in conversations in grocery stores, post offices, and doctor’s offices. Everyone has an opinion, most are furious, and now people are starting to wonder just how much it will cost to raise these babies.
Let’s start from the beginning. The average full-term birth delivered by Cesarean Section runs about $25,000. Multiply that by eight and the delivery suddenly costs $200,000. Now add in the cost of the neonatal staff needed to deliver eight premature babies. Suddenly, the cost jumps to $100,000 per baby, equaling $800,000 for them just to make an appearance into this world.
Then comes the octuplets' stay in the NICU, or the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which on average runs about $10,000 per day, including neonatalogists, nurses, respiratory technicians, and supplies. For each child, that adds up to $70,000 per week. Multiply that by eight, and suddenly these babies are costing some one $560,000 per week. The babies may be there well over a month, but to keep things simple, we’ll say that they will be well enough to go home in 4 weeks. That’s $2,240,000 that some one will have to foot the bill for. She better be getting movie and book contracts, because the public is outraged that they may have to pay for these babies.
Where are we now? $800,000 for delivery+$2,240,000 for the NICU=$3,040,000Then the babies go home. The average baby uses between 8-12 diapers per day. That is the average over the span of time a baby wears diapers taking into account that newborns need more changes than older babies. Again to keep it simple, we’re going to say ten diapers per day. Even if Pampers gives the family free diapers for a year, there’s a dollar amount for those diapers that comes out of somewhere. On average, disposable diapers cost about twenty cents a piece (this average includes low and high end diapers). Every day, one baby would go through $2 of diapers. Multiply that by 8, and the cost to keep these babies in diapers jumps to $16 per day, $112 per week, about $485 per month, and $5824 per year. Should she choose cloth diapers, she can cut that, but only if she doesn’t use a diaper service. There are too many variables to know if it will truly save her money such as energy efficiency of her appliances, the initial cost of diapers and the cost of replacement diapers, so we’ll round it down to $5,000 per year. The average child wears diapers for three years, so the total estimated cost of diapers for these babies is $15,000.
$3,040,000+$15,000 for diapers=$3,055,000
We all know that some one will feel sorry for the family cramming into a fifteen hundred square foot house, and probably build them a new one, but since that isn’t a necessity, we’ll stick with the cost of basic housing for a child. This cost includes mortgage or rent, repairs, insurance, utilities, furnishings, equipment, and appliances. The average housing cost for a child in California is $5940 per year. Multiply that by 8, and you have $47,520 per year. Think about this: Over 18 years, the estimated housing cost for these children will be $855,360.
3,055,000+$855,360=$3,910,360
Now, we move on to food. We’ll skip the breakdown of baby formula every year and go straight into the average cost of feeding a child every year, which is $2323. Again, multiply that by 8 and you get $18,584 per year. Now, multiply that by 18, and you get a whopping $334,512.
$3,910,360+$334,512=$4,244,872
Next, there is the transportation factor. Transportation covers the cost of having to purchase and maintain vehicles, gas, insurance, and public transportation. The cost of this annually is $2543*8=$20,344 in transportation every year. Over 18 years, that equals $366,192
$4,244,872+366,192=$4,611,064
Don’t forget clothing, which averages $652 per year per child. Eight children over 18 years would cost $93,888.
$4,611,064+$93,888=$4,704,952
What about healthcare? Some one has to insure these children, whether it’s the family or the state, and the annual cost of that per child will be $1010, which comes out to be $145,440 for the octuplets over 18 years.
$4,704,952+145,440=$4,850,392
Childcare and education will cost a pretty penny for this family. If the mother of these children could afford to work, she would be paying $7,200 per year in daycare alone per child. That would come out to $57,600 per year. Since we know that she is permanently disabled, and that her mother is the primary babysitter, we won’t be including childcare into our total, however there are other costs involved in childcare and education such as school supplies, preschool, books, field trips, and other things. The average cost for all eight kids over 18 years would be $249,408$4,850,392+$249,408=$5,099,800
Every parent wants to save for their children’s college funds, but what if you were faced with college for 8 children? You would have to save up $971,744 before they became college aged.
$5,099,800+$971,744=$6,071,544
The last figure we are gong to add onto the grand total of raising octuplets is the amount spent annually on a child for personal care items, entertainment, and reading material, which is $1897. For eight children over 18 years, that total jumps to $273,168.
$6,071,544+$273,168=$6,344,712. Yes, that’s right, it will cost 6.3 million dollars to raise these kids. That’s $793,089 per child, and that is only if the NICU costs are average, and only 30 days.
The average median income for a family in the U.S. per year is $40,000, which over a span of 18 years comes out to be $720,000. That’s 5.6 million dollars less than it will cost just to get all eight of these children to adulthood, and that’s not counting the money it will cost for the other 6 children that the Southern California mother had before she decided to have the octuplets.
Who will foot the bill? Hopefully she’ll get her movie and book deals, interviews, and freebies so that the hardworking taxpayers don’t have to. The information in this article was compiled using www.babycenter.com, diaper cost comparisons at Walmart, Winco, Target, and Fred Meyer, and diaperpin.com, as well as independent research on the average cost of preschool and NICU costs.
Comments
I'd be willing to pony up a donation to the "Hysterectomy For Nadya Suleman" Fund. Beyond that? Nope.
What a selfish woman! She thought more about her own happiness rather then her kids. I fear for the tax payer, I vote she recicevesno state or federal money for her kids, why should she?
Your math does not wash. To take the average amount per child in the US spent on all these things and apply it individually to these children is absurd. Ex: when purchasing a home, you pay per square foot, not per child, it is cheaper to cook in bulk, and most expenses named here are discretionary, and represent an average of all income levels. Not all families spend $1897 a year on "personal entertainment" for one child. And are the octuplets all going to pay for their own seperate tank of gas when they all drive together in the family vehicle? Sure, it will be expensive to raise these kids, but use some numbers that make sense.
The math washes, and the totals were created using averages from the median income in Southern California. Doing things in bulk may save money, but what about when she has 14 bounding growing teenagers who eat her out of house and home. What about when all 14 are in different sports and have to be run to 14 different places?
These calculations were done based on averages, and they were even given low averages. I'm sure the NICU stay alone will cost twice what the article states, so in the end, even if they do pinch pennies, the total of raising these children will be well over 6 million dollars.
Furthermore, personal entertainment includes everything from purchasing video games and systems, to buying DVD's and CD's, to gifts for friends' birthday parties, to going to the movies, to, "Mom, can I have twenty bucks for the mall". You'd be surprised how quickly that all adds up.
This whole story is troubling, when putting all the facts together. There are alot of questions to be answered. Is she mentally stable enough to raise these children, she certainly isn't responsible. Are these people even American citizens.I would boycott all books and movie deals.
I don't know how surprised I'd be-I'm a middle-aged mom myself, speaking from actual experience, not just off-the-cuff statistics pulled from somewhere.
ps- "average" does not mean "median". there's a huge difference.
What about the needs of each child? Can one person do this alone...
Read more from the LA Go-To Mom Examiner in the Family and Parenting section.
Great cost analysis. Does anyone have information on whether she had to have been insured to deliver at Kaiser? I agree with the comment that hopefully the taxpayers won't have to foot the bill. CA taxpayers are already burdened by nonpayers' medical costs.
Great cost analysis. Does anyone have information on whether she had to have been insured to deliver at Kaiser? I agree with the comment that hopefully the taxpayers won't have to foot the bill. CA taxpayers are already burdened by nonpayers' medical costs.
Great cost analysis. Does anyone have information on whether she had to have been insured to deliver at Kaiser? I agree with the comment that hopefully the taxpayers won't have to foot the bill. CA taxpayers are already burdened by nonpayers' medical costs.
Good break down and I was hoping someone would have done this math from the start...so in modest figures, this ignorant woman needs to pull in a minimum of $352,484.00 a year for approxamatley 18 years...will never happen
I would love to know where you got your math for the c-section costs. I had 2 c-sections for single babies, one of which was earlier than the octuplets. Both were performed at Kaisers and neither cost more than $15k (out of pocket was $200 for me due to good health insurance). I had a large NICU staff there for the early baby, and while not as large as Nadeya, there were probably over 15 people in the OR for the delivery. 3 OB's, one Perinatologist, one neonatologist, 2 anesthesiologist, multiple nurses and respiratory therapists. It's not like they had to cut her open and sew her back up 8 times. Your math is flawed in that area as well as others. Try harder next time, journalism is not just being a mommy blogger Sunshine.
Costs were determined by compiled data averages across the entire united states. As they are averages, the cost of any one procedure may be higher or lower, and factors such as type of insurance, state, and special circumstances may differ from another. I'm sorry that you feel the math does not add up, I did a lot of research to get the averages not only by national data systems, but by speaking with NICU staff, neonatologists, nutritionists from WIC, Chevy auto technicians, Pampers, insurance agents for health and auto, daycare professionals and child care data compilation professionals, college administrators, and financial advisers. The collected data was then averaged out, and the numbers above are the result of the equation.
Again, I apologize if you feel that statistically, I am off. I don't know how I could have gone to any more lengths to get correct averages.
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