American births are at a 25-year low, but the baby business couldn’t be doing better. One explanation, favored by parenting experts: Having fewer kids later means Mom and Dad have more disposable income to spend on Junior.
Size of the baby-product industry: $49,200,000,000 in estimated 2013 sales, according to Packaged Facts market research.
Birthrate vs. Spending
From 2006 to 2012
-3.2%: 324,000 fewer births
+23%: $9.2 billion increase in spending
The Rise of the Mommy Expo
New York Baby Show: 5/18–5/19 at Pier 92
Big City Moms Biggest Baby Shower: 5/30 at Metropolitan Pavilion
A Child Grows in Brooklyn: 6/2 at International School of Brooklyn
Brooklyn BabyFEST: 4/27 at M.S. 126 in Williamsburg
The Mamas Expo: 5/5 at the New York Hall of Science
Hippest Publication
Kindling Quarterly, for a fashionable, Greenpoint-heavy readership with kids named Beatrice and Cormac.
Newest Guru
“You can’t have a royal nursery without a chandelier. Do not be restricted to just baby chandeliers. Go big, go shiny, go opulent!”
Rosie Pope, maternitywear designer, on giving nurseries “the royal touch”
Best-Named Baby Accessories
Baby Bangs!
Patent-pending combo of “hair plus headband.”
Also
Hooter Hiders: Breast-feeding apron that does as its name advertises.
Booby Trapper: Hooter Hiders’ competitor that also shades a stroller.
Pretty Pushers: Chic alternative to unisex hospital gowns, in designs like “I Dream of Sushi.”
Swankiest Ride
