A B.C. charity that provides gently used and new baby gear to families in need is worried about the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on essential baby products.
BabyGoRound said it is now seeing some of the first confirmed price spikes, directly blamed on trade disruptions.
About 80 per cent of all baby products, including strollers and car seats, bottles and toys, are made in China.
While some of those products are imported into Canada directly, most of them come from U.S. distributors and it is now charging its 145 per cent import tax.
The non-profit anticipates multiple things will happen due to these tariffs, the first being an increase in the number of families in need.
The charity said it has already seen this happening.
From March 3 to April 20, 2024, the charity served 197 families.
From March 2 to April 19, 2025, it helped 267 families, which is already a 35-per cent increase from the previous year.
The charity said it has already seen a 150 per cent increase in families turning to BabyGoRound for help over the last three years, and this is only going to climb if gear becomes unaffordable for even more families.
According to the charity’s spring survey, 58 per cent of their parents said they have had to occasionally miss meals, or other daily needs, in order to save money to provide for their baby.
Meghan Neufeld, executive director of BabyGoFound, told Global News that one of the biggest items impacted would be strollers.
“We do end up purchasing some items,” she said.
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“We have donor-directed funding. Strollers is a big one that we spend a lot of money on. We distributed 752 strollers last year, but 110 of them were purchased.”
Neufeld said that while they do get distributor pricing, with the tariffs increasing the cost, it could mean thousands of dollars extra a year just to purchase items that families need.
The charity also recently had a deal fall through with a brand following the Feb. 1 announcement from the Trump administration about tariffs.
Neufeld said they had connected with the brand late last year and came to a distributor price agreement at the end of January.
But when they reached out in February to finalize the purchase, they have not heard back.
“We have followed up February, March and April with no success,” she said.
“So we were trying to purchase 50 travel systems, so stroller and car seat combos. And now our concern is that we are also gonna have to pay that increased cost on those pieces because it is one of the brands that has announced an increase as of May.”
Neufeld said some brands are increasing prices by $50 a piece, some as much as $160 a piece.
“So for example, UPPAbaby has an infant car seat that’s going from $400 to $560 a piece,” she said.
“And so depending on the item, it’s gonna be anywhere between $7,500 a year, could be as much as $15,000 for us.”
Neufeld said they don’t have that kind of money, and they are worried that families will potentially turn to unsafe items, such as car seats they don’t know the history of or strollers that have defects.
“When car seats are legally required to leave the hospital and families can’t afford them, where are they gonna go?” she said.
Neufeld said they work hard to make sure families have what they need and everyone is feeling the financial pinch right now.
“This is a Mother’s Day gift that nobody really wants, right?
“So it’s an especially hard time for all families. Everything’s going up, everything from, like I said, strollers and car seats, but cribs, high chairs — it’s all going up.
“And it potentially means that children just don’t have the developmental toys or these things that people may not see as essential, but it does really help a child and a family.”
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