Matalan Padded Bra for 8 year-olds - shocking!

[JayyP]

Have just been alerted to this story by a colleage at work, about how Matalan has been selling inappropriate items of children's clothing, including a padded bra for eight year-olds and hotpants for three year-olds.

Here's the link:

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3464822/Matalans-padded-bras-for-girls-of-8.html

Seems pretty shocking...suggests that there's still plenty more for the "let girls be girls" campaign to achieve!

Colleague* - ugh...Monday blues.

I'm not really sure what's so shocking about this. I wore a bra from Miss Stacey (am I remembering right??) when I was 9 in a size 28A. What would you rather? Your child wearing a bra or displaying breasts?

well if they need to wear a bra fair enough, but the fact that it's padded suggests that they want to make them appear bigger, which is plain wrong

Oh for heavens sake. These are bras for girls who need bras. Some 8yo are growing boobs, whether you approve of it or not.

And the padding is not to make their boobs look bigger, wonderbra style, but to cover up the nipples - lots of girls get very self-conscious when they're at that stage where they have very obviously protruding little bumps on their chests. The padding is designed to hide that, in the same way a t-shirt bra has padding to hide the nipples.

Thongs for pre-teen kids, T-shirts with offensive slogans, micro-shorts and high heels for girls, those I can get aerated about. Bras for girls who are developing breasts, notsomuch.

My daughter was that size at nearly 12. She didn't want padding to look bigger but to hide her nipple area from showwing beneath her t-shirt.

showing.

Bras should not have ages on them. They should have bra sizings on, even the small ones.

If bras are going to have ages on them (which I disagree with) then none should be padded.

Only bras with poper bra sizes on should be allowed to be padded.

I speak as a mum to an 8y girl who has most definitely started to develop. Not at bra stage yet but she will insit on cropped vests now and it is icreasingly obvious. But when the times does come, which could be in the next year by the looks of things (!!!, eek) she will be having a bra with a bra sie, not an age and def not padding.

Hula, see above re the reasons for the padding.

DD doesn't seem to be having that issue as yet. I would still be very reluctant tbh as padding just seems wrong persoanlly to me. Maybe we will look more at a t shirt style material and that will help.

The bra does have sizes, the target age group is just an assumption by the sun newspaper. My 12 year old was 28AA but needed a bit more coverage than the unstructured bras that she had been wearing.

OK, looked at link this time.

Bra is bra sizes not ages. So I don't care about that aspect. And as it is a bra size, not aimed at a young child, the fact that it is padded is irrelevent.

However I do think it is inappropriate for a young girl. Padding is there to enhance a chest size. That is, imo, inappropriate for young girls. There are other non padded alternatives that ae more appropriate imo. My DD will not be having a padded bra when she needs her first bra, possiblly next year aged 8y.

aged 9y rather

its a bra!! thats all.....