to think this kid is just fat?

[Daddypigsgusset]

Somebody on my Facebook (sorry!) Is currently moaning about the size of kids uniforms.
Her gripe is that for her 11 year old daughter she has had to buy ladies size 18 blouses and skirts. She is putting this down to shops having an unrealistic idea of the size of modern children or some such nonsense. She has a lot of people agreeing with her, full on hunnage included.
Having never met her daughter, I had no idea if she was right or not but found a pic of her on her profile and she is extremely overweight as are both her parents. It's them that have an unrealistic idea of a healthy sized child isn't it, and not m&s?

I developed early and had hips and a bust at age 11. I couldn't wear clothes by age and had to wear women's sizes.

Size 18 does seem large for an 11 year old. However, one of my children was seriously ill recently and had to go on a course of steroids and ballooned. He lost the weight once he was in recovery but I do wonder about how children on steroids long term cope. It did teach me not to pass judgement. My husband and I could both do with losing some pounds - I hope no-one judged us and our poor fat child when he ballooned.

Slightly off topic but I'm surprised people are saying that size 18 is fat at 11, tbh. Size 18 is obese at any age! I know I will be told I am "fat-shaming", but it's true.

Size 18 is obese at any age

Overweight maybe, but not necessarily obese.

I have been dieting all year. At the start of the year I was a 16 but starting to push the boundaries towards 18. (Not any more I am glad to say I am now a 14 and aiming steadily for 12 ) However, according to the weighing machine in Boots, at the start of the year I had a BMI of 26.6 - which is definitely overweight but you are not technically classed as obese until you hit a BMI of 30 I think.

Having said all that I do think that is a very worrying size for an 11 year old. It took me more than half a century to get that big.

infinitemonkeys
Slightly off topic but I'm surprised people are saying that size 18 is fat at 11, tbh. Size 18 is obese at any age!

Maybe it was meant size as 18 is unusually large for an 11 year old whereas many adults rightly or wrongly are a size 18.

YANBU. A size 18 at 11 is (in all likelihood, unless she's very tall) morbidly obese--a category which brings with it a whole host of health problems that that poor child will probably carry with her throughout her adult life. It's appalling that a parent would not only not see this as a problem, but that she would turn around and blame the blooming uniform company for not enabling it. If it were a different health-related problem like poor eyesight, she would be helping her daughter to fix the problem (get her glasses) instead of indignantly yelling on Facebook about how all the blackboards in schools are too small for children to read what's written on them.

This sort of thing really gets to me, because by ignoring the problem, those parents are setting their daughter up for a world of health problems on down the road. :(

To allow your child to get so overweight is heartbreaking. The poor kid is likely to be bullied for it at school, have low-self esteem, poor confidence and no doubt health issues. It doesn't pave the way for a happy adult-hood.

I think bmi measurements can be quite generous. I was only 10 st 7 at 9 months pregnant but this was only just into overweight, over bmi 25.
Certainly for my height for health people could aim for a bmi of under 21.
My 11 yo cousin has anorexia so they can manipulate their food intake at quite a young age. In both directions.

I did wonder that about larger adult clothes , the fact that such large clothes are there is normalising it.

Everyone thinks kids will grow out of the baby fat.

I would rather they taxed the sugary no nutrient foods more. Surely its better to get fat on fruit and veg. And no offers on cakes/ fizzy drinks at supermarkets.
When i was a kid in the 80s we didnt have cakes/crisps/fizzy drinks in the house. Visited the corner shop on way back from school with limited money.
Cakes mostly at weekend only.
Maybe people have too much money to waste on this crap.
It cant be poverty as that excess of weight would probably be worth a lot of money spent on something else. Even if all you could afford was chips you wouldnt need to feed them so much.
So more a lazy never saying no parenting thinking the kid will stop when they are full - i never did and made myself sick one Xmas eating 2 selection boxes.

Sadly girls ( and probably boys too ) are a lot bigger now days. My step dd is almost 15 and we have had the same problems with her uniform, it does make me angry as step dd is over weight ( she eats all day and does no exercise ), she doesn't live with us so we find it hard to control what she eats . It causes a lot of problems when it comes to clothes and uniform .

Of course the child is huge. I'm a fully grown adult who could probably lose a couple of stone to look the way I'd like to, and I'm nowhere near a size 18. To be that size at 11 is a serious health issue.

YANBU. Only on MN could an 11 year old needing a size 18 not be considered a cause for concern.

I don't think school uniforms are big. When my daughter was in year 6, she was the slightly high end of the normal/average weight being slim but not skinny and I used to buy the right age clothes for her age but where her age would be the starting age eg when 9-10 when 9. During year 7 she shot up and became skinny. She now would buy perhaps a slightly less than her age clothes eg size 11-12 when she is 12.

That aside, I do agree that there is no point in the post. Who does agree with parents allowing children to become v overweight and it is unfair? - although we clearly don't know the whole story. I try not to be judgmental because until I've been there I really don't know. It is not something I have ever had to deal with and until I have, I don't think I am in a position to comment.

If I was the parent of a child who was wearing size 18 clothes I would be seeking help to tackle whatever issues had caused that rather than posting on Facebook. That said, people gossiping about it and judging on a situation they know little about won't help matters at all.

School uniforms - and kids clothing in general - are huge.

To reiterate, Rabbit, if I did post this and not delete, as I may have done, earlier.

Median weight and just about median height 8yo is in 8/8-9/8-10 depending on the shop.

Quite tall, but median weight and with visible tub 10yo is in 11s and 12s - many things either too short or far too wide. To look at him, he's lanky, but not bony. Until he no longer needed school uniform, many of his trousers were Next slim fit. I was baffled by this until he came home with a casual class photo, a few months ago, and he looks very slight, in comparison to all the other boys, only with the expection of a boy with a very tall, slender mother.

Boy's sizing in mainstream mid market shops seems to be pretty spot on, from my experience. Though we don't buy things that are inconsistent.

I was a fat child and life was not a lot of fun...I am now pretty average, size 10-12, and conscious of what people eat / look like as a consequence. Call me judgemental.... I am.

We are on holiday in the US at the moment, and a good proportion of the kids here could be the child in the OP. some are English, the majority I guess are American. More kids are fat or obese than normal. I bought my son aged 9 some swimming trunks. He is very fit, slim and one f the taller kids in his class. The aged 6 ones fitted well. You see what the kids are eating and drinking... Non stop fizzy refills, massive portions, very little fresh veg or fruit. Ok it's Disney world...but not magical at all.

oh goody I love a mumsnet fat thread

Ouryve to reiterate - and I did post this earlier on too - 11 year old DD, by no means smallest in her year - size 8-9 school uniform (not the official school uniform because they don't make that small enough). She's neither a midget nor freakishly thin. The uniforms are huge. As is the non uniform kids clothing from mainstream shops like Next and H&M. She'd be wearing the size 7-8 stuff if it wasn't too short.

Just got DD's junior school uniform order through and the polo shirts/cardigans (logo stuff is compulsory at the new school) are really wide. The smaller size would be too short though (and going by the proportions, possibly still too wide anyway). DD is totally average I think, not exceptionally skinny. I don't tend to notice any problems with normal clothes but uniform seems much bigger.

Size 18 is obese at any age.

When I had a healthy BMI (several years ago admittedly!) - I still wore a size 18 in jeans & some trousers. I was a healthy weight but am 5ft 10ins tall & have wide hips. I was a 14 on the top & an 18 on the bottom - odd creature that I am!

However, an 18 at 11 does seem big. I must admit my first thought when reading the OP was "oh dear, where will she get her uniform from in a couple of years time" rather than "wow, that's huge".

Well yes, it's not for you to say anything but it does raise an interesting point. I've read articles that mention part of the obesity problem is that people genuinely don't recognise their children as being overweight when they are. I always thought that a person would be very aware that they or their child is overweight but it turns out that's not necessarily true. I suppose if everyone around us is increasingly overweight it skews our perception.