The next time your children are giving you grief, don’t think about this: It’s costing you more to raise them.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that a middle-income family with a child born in 2011 can expect to spend about $234,900 for food, shelter and other necessities to raise him or her over the next 17 years, an increase of 3.5 percent from 2010. The increase was in line with the spending jumps recorded during the last decade, which averaged 3.2 percent per year.

Much of the increase in 2011 came from a 10 percent rise in transportation costs, largely the result of gasoline prices that topped $4 a gallon in some parts of the country, making car trips to soccer games and flights to Disney World more costly.

“The expenditures on children are still going up,” said Mark Lino, a USDA economist, who noted he sees no sign of that slowing. “It seems people keep on spending more on their children.”

Middle-income parents with an income between $59,410 and $102,870 can expect to spend $234,900, and a family earning more than $102,870 can expect to spend $389,670 to raise a child.

The report, issued annually by the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion since 1960, found expenses for transportation, child care, education and food posted the biggest increases in 2011 compared with a year earlier. There were smaller increases in housing, clothing, health care and miscellaneous expenses. Read more at the Des Moines Register