Also chiming in as one of the people who had to stop eating all dairy and soy while nursing. With #1 I didn’t have to give up anything but #2 was sensitive to dairy, soy, and egg. She also flat out refused all possible bottles and almost got a feeding tube. It was nursing, allergen-free, or nothing. I could basically only eat meat, veggies, and pasta. It was terrible.
I just looked through my tracking and I think for the first baby we averaged around $500 per month on the baby for the first year? This was just purchases and included buying multiple kinds of cloth diapers just to realize they wouldn’t work for us, different types of nipple pads, etc. our families didn’t gift us anything except clothes so we bought all of the things ourselves. We also had the increase to health insurance and I don’t even know how much that was plus all of the copays and such that come from having a special needs child.
I also want to point out one thing - I went into parenthood with the assumption that all a baby needs is a safe place to sleep and clothes and some way to eat. I bought into the MMM hype that babies don’t need anything else. We don’t have toys and stuff. Then I had a baby that at even 3 months old wasn’t hitting her milestones and I learned that a lot of the baby toys have a purpose. The baby gym/play mat things give them things to look at and reach up for during tummy time and back time. They help them learn how to roll over and to reach their arms up ands around. For the first 6 months of OT sessions every week we were buying a new item that her OT recommended and they really helped. At one point I had a breakdown crying because I felt like I had been holding her development back because I was too cheap to buy the things she needed.