Mums of very thin reception girls, pls help!

[kisaki333]

I have ordered (and mostly returned) at least £300 worth of school trousers in the last month I can't find a single one that looks ok and fits.
Some of the ones with adjustable waist can be adjusted to fit the waist but they look like she did a big poo in her nappy (she obviously doesn't wear one! )
To make it worse, all the adjustable waist ones are polyester. ALL the cotton pull ones I found don't have an adjustable waist. Whyyyyy???
So far we tried:
Next (best results so far but still bad)
M&S
ASDA found one slim fit that has really bad reviews saying it's much too slim lol. This one is ok, but feels poor quality.
Sainsbury's
Various Amazon brands with 0 success

Anyone managed to find something that actually looks ok on a slim petite 4.5yo and with good quaility? Preferably cotton?

And before you say about dresses, i don't want her in dresses, she is very active and a climber, she won't be able to do everything she wants in a dress.

In day to day she lives in leggings but the school won't accept those (how crazy is that, why not?!)

DS is very slim but not short and just finished reception. We bought him size 3-4 trousers from m&s and let down the hem
Kept him in shorts until it really was too cold because these seemed to fall down less and the 3-4 ones where still fine.

Agree re dresses and skirts though - just stick them in cycling shorts. As someone who has played netball in a dress my entire life with where underneath it really is very good for moving!

My daughter was the same when she was that age. We were allowed leggings at school and bought grey ones that blended in.

Cycling shorts under a skirt was our go to as she got older.

Skort

EcoOutfitters do 100% cotton school trousers. From memory they have adjustable waists. Bought from them a long time ago but I remember my DS wore through the knees on his trousers quite quickly.

Moving, maybe. Climbing things and crawling around on floors, not so practical. My daughter doesn't even like sitting on school chairs in short skirts, it doesn't cover her legs so she gets stuck to the plastic. Long shorts or trousers are better. Obviously longer skirts is an option - though for my long thin girl she'd have been swimming in it to get to knee length - but even more impractical for climbing frames, too much fabric hanging about.

Do you have a sewing machine, or know someone with one?
You can get plentiful sewing patterns online for free or for just a few £s. Buy a stretch of cotton fabric and sew a few made-to-measure trousers.
If you have only basic sewing skills (or know someone who does) this will be so much easier and quicker than spending weeks trawling websites and shops, buying and returning.
You can reuse the same sewing pattern each time she grows.

My dd wore H&M treggings. When she got older she wore school shorts from next and tights because she could wear school shorts for a four year old when she was much older but unlike trousers it didn’t matter if they were shorter.

Someone asked this question on the school WhatsApp and HnM was suggested a few times!

I have this problem with DS1 now in Y1 and I suspect DS2 will be the same, starting R in September. I make DS1 trousers, I used grey cotton jersey and I use a joggers pattern from waves&wild but I don't do the ankle cuffs, I just make the leg a little longer and then hem. Also often have to adjust waists on shop bought clothes, by taking off or out the elastic, shortening it and then sewing back in, or adding elastic when it was previously a drawstring. School shorts don't seem to have the same problem, I'm not sure why! For non teflon and cotton trousers, the only semi affordable ones I've found were JL, but they're often out of stock or go out of stock quickly when they come in. And they seem to be large fitting. I haven't really got time to make school trousers anymore 😬 so this is a prod to find another solution for the autumn.

@AllFloatOn it is quite telling the uk clothing for kids is definitely cut for very overweight children. My oldest is average weight these days, and we still struggle to find trousers that aren’t ridiculously big in the waist!

So my son is very thin as well, I have bought the size down from M&S but with longer leg and they also have a 2 inch grow room you can unpick, they are also adjustable waist and do fit with pulling in a bit found that’s been the best way round it. Would imagine same for girls trousers

i had very slim boys and the only trousers that worked were M&S slim fit (not the standard ones) with the adjustable waist then done up tight too.

My son was very skinny and in age 3 trousers when he started school (has a heart condition so struggles to gain weight and is short) we swear by the m.and s skinny fit ones even now he's 9 we still use them. Have you tried the boys ones?you don't have to tell your daughter they're not from the girls section

Mine has cycling shorts under her dress, mine is an avid climber too.

My daughter was 1st percentile for weight as a summer born 4 year old starting reception and only weighed about 12kg (medical reasons for this - long story). I got waist adjustable polyester age 3 slim fit trousers in m&s. They were ok. Yes they were loose on the thigh but its not a fashion parade.

She wore dresses 95% of the time and was absolutely fine being incredibly active in them.

My DD was a very slim kid but she started school 20 years ago so clothes were probably better quality then. I’d go for slim fit w adjustable waist. I as def easier in skirts rather than trousers.

Im kinda not believing this because my DD is tiny for medical reasons, and late august born and we haven't had this much trouble. If your DD is as small as mine I expect you are under endocrinolpgy having her growth investigated - if so, try thd child growth foundation facebook page for more specific advice on more extreme clothing advice for children who are off the charts clinically small.

If you are dead set on cotton that is your issue, there's very little demand for it as its expensive etc and so theres very little choice, i'd give up on that.

Clothing is marketed to the middle. You aren't going to find masses of choices at either end of the range, you need to just buy what you can that complies with the uniform.

Matalan adjustable waist trousers are good. My oldest was very slim starting reception and we got those. They weren't cotton though x

Yeah I have quite a few family members who were under investigation for being so underweight as kids and we never had this much issue with clothes tbh.

I put upthread but all my family members (and particularly the very tiny ones) just bought any normal school trousers and put stitches in the side to make the waists smaller. It didn't cost anything extra and wasn't particularly difficult - and OP you can buy any trousers you want this way.

@herewegoagainonwednesday I completely agree. I have no idea what percentile DS sits on but he looks pretty tall in his reception class and like a normal sized child from my childhood... He eats quite a lot. I don't think we should have to buy him slim fit trouser and tighten them up on the adjusters (as others have said, for non school trousers I always buy European brands which seem to cut them for normal rather than overweight kids!).

Op you mentioned about her not liking tights. Just so skirt and long socks

For years I avoided skirts and dresses, but really it's the tights I hated. Schools are all boiling hot these days I'd go skirt n socks and a coat for winter. Forget the hideous tights (what fruitloop invented such hideous garments, probably a man)

Not sure if it's the same for girl's school trousers but you can buy boy's ones from many places in an extra long leg which come up nearly as long as the size above. So you could for example buy 3-4 with the long leg to get a narrower waist?

Also a lot of them come with a sort of double hem so you can let them down as they grow, which gives an extra inch or 2. You could also buy a smaller size but let the hems down right away?

Probably not particularly helpful for school trousers unless you can get away with black jeans, but for other purposes some of you may like the Morphologik range of trousers, which come in three widths, and lots of styles https://www.vertbaudet.co.uk/search=morphologik.htm

Boys slim fit?

She will be sat down for hours of the day

Not in reception she won't be. They spend about half their time outdoors these days, and active play is actively encouraged. My child's reception class doesn't even have enough chairs and tables for all the children to sit down at once, because the idea is they'll mostly be moving around doing active learning, and then the teacher takes small groups of them aside for 5 minutes at a time to sit and practice writing etc. Mine used to come home covered in mud and paint and food most days.