Almost 3 year old is in 4-5 year old clothes

[dawsy]

I've emailed our HV today.

DD is 2, she has been wearing 4-5 year old clothing for the last couple of months. She turns 3 in July.

Should I be concerned by this? She was 9lbs 2 oz, and has always been in the top centiles for height, weight and head circumference.

But I'm suddenly starting to worry that her growth is too quick? And outside of what is considered normal?

She is slim and active, has a healthy diet - loves her fruit and veg. We don't do treats unless a genuine treat etc. etc.

Labels in clothes are completely meaningless imo. They aren't standardised across companies.
DS2 has 28" waist trousers which fit, 32"waist trousers that fit, size 8 (which say that's a 28" waist) (women's) dungarees that fit. And he's just outgrown a pair of age 14-15 trousers.

My nephew is 9 and in age 10- 11. My nieces are 5 and 7 and share clothes, anything from 5-6 to 8-9.

Unless she looks overly massive I wouldn't worry.

I wouldn't worry, my friends DD is exactly like this and my child the opposite, nearly 4 but in age 2 -3 clothing. Both have roughly followed their expected growth line from birth weights and both healthy and eat well.my DD is just small for her age and friends DD just tall for her age.

If she's always been big/tall and isn't overweight then she's probably just a normal tall child. Sounds similar to how I was ("off the charts" tall when really little, mistaken for being year 3 or older when I started school). Growing up we were always typically in clothes sized 2 yrs above through primary age years. My own children weren't very different to that either, just a little less extreme.

It doesn't sound likely to be an issue, but expect her weight centile to stay below her height centile. I remember noticing at early school age, that my children looked "wider" than a lot of their smaller peers, while still being in proportion. Through primary ages they all mostly just lengthen out and we had some items that stayed in the wardrobe several years which leads to the fun of having age 6 and age 12 stuff at the same time :)

My dd is the same, will be 3 in August, so following for replies! She is bigger and taller than other children her age but not massively so, has been on the 99th centile since she was a few weeks old.

DD was exactly the same and now, at age 4, I have just had to buy age 7-8 clothes. I'm not concerned, and neither are the many doctors she has seen (for other reasons). The only issue is being limited to clothes with adjustable waists as she is like a tall stick

Remember clothing is usually made to suit average sized children and the ages mean ´up to’ so anything she owns with age 4 on it is based on the height of an average 3-4 year old and anything with age 5 on it is based on the height of an average 4-5 year old. Children in the top percentiles will always go through the sizes quicker.
In your child’s red book (or equivalent wherever you live if not the UK) they will be a series of graphs where you can plot height and weight growth (and maybe head circumference?). Have a look at how your daughter growth looks on those graphs. If she is fairly consistently just following a growth curve in the higher percentiles, then it’s likely to be that she’s just bigger and will be a tall adult :) Remember that the higher percentiles exist because there are consistently children at those heights and weights!
If she’s way off the chart for her age, or if her charts indicate she is very heavy or very light for her height, then the HV might recommend monitoring by a dr in case there is something medical going on.

Good idea to check with health professionals just in case but honestly my 4 year old is wearing 7 year old clothes and my 6 year old can get away with 4year old in some brands. So I wouldnt worry about size on the label if she is otherwise healrhy.

My daughter has always been big for her size. She’s just turned 4 and wears size 6. My son however, so far comes up small or just right for his age. And they had very similar birth weights! I’m convinced girls sizes are smaller than boys. Size 7 shorts still come up tiny in her and she isn’t that big!!

My youngest is 99th percentile for height, she’s in 3-4 clothes at 2 and will probably go to age 4+ v soon.

With certain clothes e.g. supermarkets, Primark they definitely are.

My DD, 4, wears some stuff sold in the boys section and we tend to have to go one age up. There as with girls it is minimum of 2 ages up.

With slightly more expensive retailers the girls stuff is at least one age group up.

The only exceptions are with the Nordic/Scandinavian clothes that a friend gave us. With that she wears the correct age group.

Btw my DD wasn't big at birth. Though in my family that means nothing. The bigger babies are the short adults, and the average babies are the tall ones.

I have a 7 year old in 7-8 clothes and I'd be astonished if his clothes fit his 3.5 year old sister, but that's pretty much what some people on here are saying is the case for their kids so I wouldn't worry about one size up.

Are you tall? I think it's pretty easy to see visually if a child is overweight, without weights and measure, so if they look a healthy size and are active and eating a balanced diet I wouldn't worry too much what the labels in their clothes say.

OP a handful of my friends and acquaintances daughters are tall. The adult ones are around 6ft. All were in larger clothes from birth.

Not all have tall mothers. Most have tall fathers but majority not noticeably so. However nearly all have a grandmother or blood aunt who is around 6ft.

Well children vary in size, just babies and adults. Children's clothes vary in size too, across brands and styles , just like adults!

I've always thought it off that kids clothes in this country are sized by age. If you go to any group of kids the same age, to within a few months, the kids will all be different heights.

What are your DD's centiles like? If her weight centile is the same, or smaller, than her height centile, then I don't think you need to worry about her being overweight.

DH and I both have quite families - me especially. Our children have both always been tall, and mostly have needed clothes with an older label age. Age 3, DD wore Age 6-7 in a few Joules things! Age 15, and 6'2", DS can still wear Age from Land's End.

Worry about centiles, not clothes labels.

My oldest was 11lb 2 when he was born and was always in bigger clothes. He's an adult now and 6"3 . He was always taller than the majority of kids his age

I wouldn't worry about clothes sizes DS is 4, in 4-5 in Boden, jeans 2-3 from h&m, shorts from next 2-3, la redoute some are age 5, some 5-6. Sizing is really inconsistent.
If she's in proportion and following her usual centiles I wouldn't be concerned.

She just sounds tall. My DS was always in double his age!! 18m clothes when 6 months, 6yr clothes when 3yo etc.

He is now 5ft10 and has size 11 feet at 12yo.

As long as she is on the same centile for height and weight, I wouldn't worry.

Worry about centiles - as long as she's not above the 85th weight centile she's fine (BMI is a bit of a red herring at that age, as overweight children get tall before they get plump).

Why would you worry about it if she's slim? She's obviously just tall. My DDs have always been several sizes up, my 4 year old is in 5-6 clothes at least.

Just in case there is something medically going on.

DD head was off the charts and had to have an MRI to check there was no underlying medical issue with it.

Thanks all.

I am tall 6ft and DH is 6ft 1. Our DS has always been 50th centile and average for everything, so I think I'm just a bit surprised with our DD.

I'll check in with the HV just to be on the safe side, but I think you're all probably right and it's just that she's on the taller side.

My 4yo has been in 7-8 clothing for quite some time. Despite being younger in year, tends to be taller than most kids at preschool. Wouldn't even cross my mind to contact HV. What could they do? They're just bigger.

Honestly don't worry.

DD is 3 (4 at the end of the month) and is in 5 - 6. She's a bit chunky, but more than active - she never stops!

I find that a 16 in M & S fits perfectly, but a next 16 wouldn't go anywhere near me. Sizes really do vary everywhere.

DH and I are tall and both of ours have always been in way older clothes sizes than their actual age. DS is about to turn 11 and is in men's sizes small. DD is nearly 8 and in 11 - 12.

Your both tall so of your little one is following in both your footsteps. My DD is 7 and in 9-10 or even 10-11 for the length sometimes.

From 9m - 26 m my dd was over the 99th centile . HV was going on at us, gp too. They wanted to admit her to hospital as didn’t believe my food diary !!!!! Then they started on about me still breastfeeding her.

Everyone was trying to force a hospital stay for observation. They were trying to push nursery to separate me from her to limit breastfeeding. I was treated like a criminal !
Eventually they got SS involved for ‘neglect’
Had the SW round and gave her all the same info I’d given everyone else . Showed her my food diary for dd. Explained I wasn’t going to send her to nursery till age 3
Also explained how every girl in our family up till age 2-3 is short but very big but we are a tall family and this is just us as there will suddenly be a growth spurt and then literally overnight she won’t be ‘obese’
I showed her pictures of me, my sisters, my mum and cousins all as babies and toddler then at age 5. By age 5 all so tall and skinny!

The SW looked at it all. Said she had seen enough and she was extremely disappointed in the HV and GP. She was going to speak to her manager and close the case . It was horrendous and I opted out of HV involvement for my youngest due to what happened