M&S school uniform sizes-a bit shocked really

I have been doing a bit of googling for John's preschool uniform, and I was shocked as well. All the major retailers online have "generous" fits. I mean on the one hand isn't it wonderful that overweight children don't have the humiliation of not fitting into school clothes like they would have done in our day. But on the other, isn't it sad that there are so many fat children that there's clearly a market there?

In the last class i taught I had a 4 year old in an age 11-12 dress and it wasn't because she was tall. Had a few over the years but I think this poor little thing was probably the worst. She even had trouble getting up if she was sat on the carpet with the other kids.

I can remember going shopping for school clothes with my Mum when I was about 11. We tried on the size 11 skirt in M&S and it fell off me! Moved on to size 10, 9 etc etc. Eventually we got down to age 4 and that was a perfect fit around the waist - shame it was about a foot too short! My Mum and I fell about laughing? I wasn't really a skinny minnie either!

I have notoced though that children's clothes do seem to be cut rather generously these days. My children are 10 & 3.5 yrs and I tend to have to buy things with adjustable waists otherwise I find they are too big. The last few pairs of leggings and shorts and ballet skirt that I bought for Emily I had to sew tucks in the waist because they fell off her! They aren't skinny children, just fairly petite and slender, which I think is what young children are meant to look like.

We went to Haven the other weekend, in Cleethorpes and there were lots of families there from the North East. I was shocked at the number of extremely overweight children in the swimming pool - some as young as 2 or 3 who barely fitted into their rubber rings!?

It's not just a north east problem. It's a nationwide issue.

Oh I know it's nationwide, but obesity in general does seem to get generally worse the further North you go!

I wasn't trying to imply that all or only children from the North East are overweight, but it's just that even where I live (which is East Midlands and quite a working class area) I've never seen so many very overweight children all in one place, especially such young ones!

Jaysus, talk about sweeping generalisations. I need a rolls eyes icon I think.

Maybe it's because we all live on lard and turkey twizzlers up north?

Unfortunately not all children are petite and slender. My son is very healthy,plays tennis and golf, is in a normal weight range but is not "petite and slender". He has more of a stocky build like his dad.

Ive always had a problem getting uniforms. My eldest J has always been tall & skinny but my youngest T was short & chubby. Js trousers would be too big in waist & perfect in leg or halfmasts & perfect waist. T the opposite way round. They are now 14 & 12 & are both the same waist & both quite tall (& both in Topman/Burtons pants & tops).

I think you'll find that it's not a sweeping generalisation. If you look at statistics, it is true that in general there is a greater problem with obesity the further North you go, and I think Scotland tops the lot. There is a North South divide in health inequalities - smoking, drinking, etc. That's not to say there aren;t any obese children/adults in the South, of course there are.

The comment about children being slender I took from a nutritionalist/dietician type person who was talking on a programme about obesity on Radio 4 a while ago - she was talking about primary school aged children. Of course there is always veriation even within the healthy range - and very sporty children/adults can often have more muscular figures, this is different to being obese. Oh and I didn't mean that were supposed to be petite (that's just my poor wording ?) of course some are taller etc - I meant the slender bit in general - but only in so far as it applies to primary school children - once they fill out with puberty etc they change shape! BMI can give an indication as to whether they are an appropriate weight for their height - obviously if a child is taller then they would probably be heavier but could still be in the healthy range and in proportion!

My son is 10, but has never been what I call "slender". I suppose it is how you define slender. I've always taken the meaning as being very thin. I would class my son as an average body shape.

Interestingly, it seems that London has the highest childhood obesity rate. I think it is strongly linked to levels of deprivation though and there are many very deprived areas in London.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4200903.ece

The woman I heard talking on the radio said that you should just about be able to see children's rib cages when they moved - she used the word 'slender' as her definition of what a healthy primary school aged child should look like. To me it I suppose it means nicely covered (not skin & bone) but not excessively so. Toddlers and adolescents obviously have different body shapes.

The article you linked to has a school in London with the highest rate and County Durham (in the NE the last time I checked) as the lowest.

TG

A couple of year's old now, but the data shows that the North generally has higher rates of obesity

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6033023.stm

the high school i walk past to take my littlies to school seems to have either very skinny kids or really rather chunky ones...... the chip shop is always full of the chunky ones after school tbh....

that's why scotland is still attached to england. if we weren't, then we'd sink without a trace because of all the fat people living here.

sigh. obesity in people living in scotland/the north is not caused exclusively because of a diet of lard and pies. generations of poverty and deprivation has had a massive impact. poor health, caused by environment as well as diet, has resulted in high heart disease and obesity rates. and i'm fairly certain that, regardless of the location within the UK, you will find higher rates of obesity in the more deprived areas.

however, as you weren't making a sweeping statement, i don't need to go into all of that here.

I work with families in Blackpool, we have massive problems with deprivation and in turn have some of the worst cases of malnutrition. It goes from one extreme to the other with many children with extremely low bmi and many with very high bmi.

I know that amongst other things they are looking at offering semi-skimmed milk to school children instead of full fat, also there is less of an emphasis on 5 a day and more on educating parents to provide a lower fat diet within their budgets.

Maybe we should get BGB to roll out his 'eat less move more' approach to the masses!

Clairebecky hasn't said anywhere that people live on a diet of lard, pies, and turkey twizzlers <scratches head>

Maybe people shouldn't read things that aren't there..

I have children with small waists as well so we have to either have belts, ajustable waists or the trousers end up around down their knees!

What does depress me is seeing overweight children walking to school but stuffing their face with chocolate and fizzy drinks as their parent/grandparent/carer walks behind. Or coming out from school and being given something right away ☹️

no, but she did claim that the further north you get, the higher the obesity rates are. and without any justification other than "statistics say..."

unless she was inferring that people are just built "bigger boned" the further away from the channel you get...

Clearly all Northerners have a massive chip on their shoulders.

Sorry about the sweeping generalisation ?

they sell a blazer designed just for an iPOD.as well now.

As for sizes - the booklet in the back to school range does quite a few Adult sizes - at the back.

I provided justification if you'd care to read my link. You northern fatty ??

If you actually look at my post where I posted a link to an article, I did say that it is linked to deprivation!

Did I actually say anywhere that everyone in the North was fat and that they were fat because they did nothing but eat pies? Honestly, talk about misinterpreting what I said!

So no, you don't need to go into all of that here - as you say! The problem is not straight forward or easily solved.

I saw this, I can't believe it. I know children have Ipods but making a special pocket for them is ridiculous IMO.

Eh? Only if that's what their genes have designed them to be. I wasn't fat as a child but I certainly was never "slender".

If that's what you think all children should look like, then I suspect your seeing a lot more "obese" children than there actually are.

I agree with your comments about Scotland - it's more complex than just everyone eating nothing but chips and pies - but given the levels of obesity, I think you'd find the country bobs on the North Sea, rather than sinks ?

In defence of some children (not all, I know - obesity is an issue), it could just be that they're tall/developed for their age. As an eg my colleagues daughter is VERY tall for her age, she's 10 and they really struggle to find trousers long enough, which generally means buying a size that is huge on her (for the length) and then having the waist adjusted to fit. I had a similar issue myself - I was 5ft 6 at 11yrs old, and my periods had started and I had a chest. So the 'straight-up-straight-down' design of children's school clothes simply didn't fit. I too remember having the most enormous sizes of skirts, and my mum putting elastic in the waists so they stayed on. But I had curves so needed the extra width at the hips. I was nowhere near obese (or even overweight) but I also wasn't 'standard' 11yr old size and shape. I'm sure there must be children out there today with the same issue.

Personally now buying uniform for my dinky skinny 4yr old for September I'm having the opposite problem - thank goodness there are prep schools that insist on uniform from age 2 or whatever silly age, as I've been finding bits that will actually stay up on her skinny frame!

I did say further down that I didn't mean that all children should be petite - that was misworded. The bit about children (and I meant primary school aged) being fairly slender came from a dietician type person on Radio 4 (ok, maybe 1 person isn't enough evidence but she was speaking as an 'expert'). And no I don't automatically assume that all slightly chunkier children are obese - it all depends on their build, height etc. The children I saw on holiday who I said were obese truely were! There was a 2/3 yr old girl who looked like she had a beer belly - she really could barely fit into her rubber ring. There was a brother and sister aged about 8 & 11 who were huge - not just 'chunky' but seriously overweight. I felt quite sorry for them really - it must be really difficult being that size at a young age for all sorts of reasons!

For what it's worth, I'm no skinny minnie either (not really overweight but verging on it) and as a child, although I was petite I was medium build, not skinny.

"If you actually look at my post where I posted a link to an article, I did say that it is linked to deprivation!

Did I actually say anywhere that everyone in the North was fat and that they were fat because they did nothing but eat pies? Honestly, talk about misinterpreting what I said!

So no, you don't need to go into all of that here - as you say! The problem is not straight forward or easily solved."

(my quoting is broke. apologies)

i appreciate that you put up links afterwards, but your initial statements about obese north-east folk (and sweeping generalisation about obesity in the north) were what perhaps misled me.

no chips on my shoulder. i ate them.

oh and BGB - i take great offence at the name you called me. i'm scottish not northern. ? ?

apologies for getting on my soapbox. but this is an issue which does irritate me. i shall step off it now, and stop being chippy. fnar. ?

You're scottish? In that case get that deep fried mars bar off your shoulder ?

?

i have never in my life eaten a deep fried mars bar, nor have i seen one.

but i may have eaten a deep fried pizza once. and perhaps a burger-with-cheese-in-it in batter has passed my lips...

Surely statistics are a pretty good justification?

If she'd said all northerners are fat because they are lazy arses who eat too many pies that would have been a problem. However what she has said is broadly correct. The reasons are linked to deprivation and other things as you say but that doesn't stop it from being true.