Seriously! Who sizes children’s clothing? What kind of “average” do they use?
Case in point: My son is 8 1/2 months old. He is a tall kid for his age, but not heavy at all. In fact, he’s a little on the skinnier side. Last week a friend dropped off a belated Christmas gift for The Boy. She told us she had “bought it big and from a nice kids store” to make sure it fit him for a few months. “Big” as in “12 month” size.
It doesn’t fit. Yes, my very average sized 8 1/2 month old son does not fit into 12 month old clothing. Instead, he takes 18 month sized clothes. For everything. Come on!!!
This Christmas (The Boy was 7 months old), I was given the cutest red “Santa Loves Me” onsie and green pants to match. It was 9 month size. I jammed The Boy into it just for a picture. He ended up looking like a stuffed sausage, busting out of that onsie that should have easily fit him at his age. He and I were both less then impressed.
I’m not sure if it’s a dirty ploy by clothing makers or a bizarre anomaly among ALL the children that we know, but I have yet to meet a baby who is in a clothing size that matches their age. Every 9 month old child I know is in 12 month clothes- minimum. This causes all sorts of issues, but the biggest one surrounds gifts. Non-parents (like I was just a few months ago) end up buying your child clothing based on age, not even realizing how inaccurate those sizes are. Well-meaning moms pass on their used clothing that almost never fits my boy. It’s frustrating to constantly be returning beautiful clothing to kids stores because they are too small- even though, according to the tags, it should have fit.
I really feel like all I do is buy clothing for my child. Every month or two, I’m back at the stores, stocking up on new sleepers, pants and tops for my growing boy. Not that I mind, I love a good reason to shop. I just wish that the clothing SIZE would be, at the very least, SIMILAR to my child’s age.
Does it ever stop? Will there ever be a time where my child will actually fit into the clothing size he is supposed to fit into? Or am I destined to always be outfitting my little man in clothing supposedly sized for a child twice his age?
Strange my son is still in 6 months and he is 9 months old!
Who comes up with these sizes? Someone on crack. Seriously, that has always made me crazy. It is like the sizing for women’s clothing. I have found Children’s Place sizing to be closer to “true” sizing for my boys….but that is not always true at all ages. I think somewhere the powers that be sit around a big boardroom table and say ….”Ok, we have all these sleep deprived moms who have to make a million decisions a day….so lets really mess them up and screw around with our sizes and put them totally over the edge!”
Good luck and happy shopping!!
My DD wore pretty much the size appropriate to her age until she was around 2 or so, then she shot up in height and is also wearing much larger sizes than her age (she is almost 3 1/2 and she is going to be wearing a size 5 soon). DS is absolutely huge though, and is wearing 12-18 month clothes at 10 mos. The best is when the well-meaning people buy gift cards – no worries!!
Sizing in adult clothing is just as chaotic. I usually try both the size below and above my “size” but obvisouly things aren’t as straightforward with babies. Then they get to two or three and don’t want to relinquish a favourite item (Buzz Lightyear pj’s as far as my oldest was concerned) and wear it day and night until it way too short and disintegrating. Btw: he proudly passed the afore mentioned rags – I mean pj’s – to his younger brother.
I have had both extremes. My son was always in a size or two bigger where my daughter was always a size behind. I usually based the purchase on weight, not the size on the label but even then it isn’t an exact sciend.
Now I find it even more difficult. My son is really tall for a 10 year-old so for length he is a 12 or 14 but he is VERY thin with really small hips so his waist is a size 8. I have to buy everything with a drawstring or, if I can find them, buy size slim (tough to find but “husky” is in abundance) with the adjustable waist. Then he gets a size 14 on top.
My 7 year-old daughter is similar. I had to buy her size 5 bottoms the other day but a size 8 top! The pants were almost floods but she absolutely loved them and the next size fell off her. The issue is that people are shaped differently, regardless of age, weight, height, etc. so sizing something must be very difficult.
i also have the opposite problem. at 6 mos, they were in 6 mos clothing, 1 year….1 year size.
now i’m having a heck of a time as my oldest is 7 and needs to have adjustable waists in everything otherwise she has to have size 5 clothing…skirts only otherwise the pants are too short. i need “colt” sizes. she’s not even near 40lbs yet.
whenever i get the phone calls from relatives wanting to buy them clothing it’s a big chore….size 6x tops from old navy but 5 bottoms however don’t buy from roots cuz the size 6 fits me but the tops are okay and childrens place is size 7 tops and 6 bottoms only if they’re adjustable otherwise 5. ugh….i’m dressing her in bags from now on.
My youngest is 2 and wears size 3 and my oldest is 5 and wears 6. My theory is that you should always size up. So worst case scenario the cloths fit just right or are slightly bigger and will be grown into. Mom’s With A Plan.com Work From Home
I was waiting for SOMEONE to have the opposite problem:)
Well, call my daughters the anomaly – when my older daughter was a baby, she was always at least one size behind (in other words, at 9mths she was wearing 6 mth clothes and everything was baggy on her). And now that both my girls are older, I am always lamenting the fact that everything seems to be made for kids the same height as mine but much larger in girth. In other words, my six year old’s pants fit her in length, but even so-called “skinny” jeans are baggy and fall right off. My nine year-old daughter has the same problem…
So I always have the same lament: “who are they making these clothes for, anyway?” but seemingly on the other end of the spectrum! LOL…maybe there is no parent who can buy their kids’ clothes off the rack.
It is true that finding the right size is a problem with babies. It’s not practical to go into a dressing room & try clothes on at that age.
Love your blog!
Hi Sarah, kids clothing sizes are a huge issue – I totally agree that gift-buying, particularly for babies, is a problem. Especially since every clothing brand tends to have their own size standards, most of which are based on their target customer. The size on the label is, unfortunately, not a good indicator of fit. Trying things on and reading size charts are a better way to go.
– Stormy, SizeTracker Blog