Babies

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* By year-end, each of the more than 3.8 million babies born in 1986 will gobble up 552 jars of baby food, dirty approximately 3,000 diapers, and grow out of $412 worth of clothes.

* Business tycoons born in 1986 may face their first cash-flow crisis when they enter Harvard Business School. Projected tuition in the year 2007, based on figures of the past 10 years: $31,900 a year, not including room and board.

* But when they graduate two years later, these Harvard B-school alums can expect an average starting salary of $104,110 a year, based on 10-year figures.

* Companies have countless ways of separating parents from their money. Who would deprive their baby of a Lewis of London 24-carat-gold-plated crib ($1,995), French Catamini snowsuit ($130), Giant Moon Teddy Bear ($200), Perrego baby carriage ($229), Italian Chicco high chair ($100), Aprica stroller ($229), or Baby Guess overalls ($45)?

* Sixty-nine percent of the chief executive officers of INC. 500 companies would like to see their children follow them into the business.

* Fifty-nine years ago, Dan Gerber's wife tried to teach him the messy task of straining peas for their seven-month-old child. It took only one lesson to set Papa Gerber tantasizing about a new business. By the end of its first year, Gerber Strained Foods (now Gerber Product Co.) had achieved national distribution, selling 590,000 cans of baby food.

* Just like adults, babies can make $333.25 per day for shooting television commercials.

* Upon J. Paul Getty's death in 1976, his 16 grandchildren inherited $1.3 billion worth of Getty Oil stock.

* Sales in the under-five-year-old market could top $20 billion by 1990, a 37% surge over estimated 1986 sales of $14.6 billion. Apparel will take the biggest cut, with 1990 sales of $11.5 billion, followed by baby supplies, toys, furniture, and nursery accessories.

* Adolphus Busch begat August, who begat August Jr., who begat August III, now chief executive of Anheuser-Busch Co. August III begat August IV, now 21 years old and studying business at St. Louis University.

* If baby food was the growth business of a past generation, day care is the hot baby business of the 1980s. The biggest day-care provider is Kinder-Care Learning Centers Inc., founded in 1969 by real estate developer Perry Mendel. Mendel learned about the opportunity through a couple who ran two local day-care centers: women then made up 42% of the labor force, but the state of child care was still mired in "antiquity" -- done mostly out of providers' houses. Mendel's answer was Kinder-Care, which now has 1,070 centers keeping an eye on 100,000 toddlers. The value of $100 invested in the company when it went public in 1972: $7,000.

* While on maternity leave, 40% of female workers receive disability coverage and pay.

* In 1945, there were 41.9 workers to support one retiree. Come 2035, when today's newborns will rule, they'll be working rather hard: only 1.9 of them will foot the bill for each senior citizen.

* The eighth generation runs two of America's oldest companies, both founded in the 1700s. Larrie Laird heads Laird & Co., a brandy maker that survived during Prohibition by selling apple juice. And Kirk & Nice Inc., which built coffins for the American and British soldiers who fell at the Battle of Germantown in 1777, conducts 500 funerals a year in Philadelphia.

* Companies following demographic trends can rejoice: parents and grandparents spend 10 times more on the first child than on subsequent offspring.

* Lithuanian-born seamstress Lena Bryant started out making sexy lace and silk negligees in the early 1900s. Her big break came when a pregnant customer begged her to custom-design a fashionable maternity dress -- until then, expectant mothers remained out of public view. Shunning the Victorian mind-set, Bryant made the dress and soon found herself in demand all over New York City. Since then, Lane Bryant Apparel has made its niche in the hard-to-fit women's market.

* Of the 1.5 million family-owned corporations in the United States, only one-third make it to the second generation, according to family business guru Leon Danco. For those that last, "The mother deserves the credit."

* In 1977, Lane Nemeth's search through toy stores failed to turn up educational toys for her baby daughter. A former day-care director, Nemeth knew the growing appeal of high-quality playthings. So she borrowed $50,000 from friends and family and started Discovery Toys Inc. Later, a Small Business Administration loan and venture capital fueled the company as it grew via direct sales of midpriced toys, books, and games. Last year, Discovery Toys posted sales of more than $40 million.

* The size of the 6-to-13-year age group will increase 13% in the next 10 years -- good news for the juvenile-book business, which is already moving ahead briskly. Juvenile-book sales should reach $777 million by 1989, up from $162 million in 1980.

* Working parents miss an average of eight days a year because of child-care problems, according to a study conducted by Child Care Systems Inc.

* Walt Disney (see photo) built a $2-billion empire entertaining kids. It was during a train ride from New York to Hollywood that Disney conjured up Mickey Mouse, the lovable rodent that would eventually star in 119 films.