Do kids really need bigger clothes?

Last week I thought that the personal hygiene industry had gone crazy, this week it seems that the clothing/fashion industry has lost its marbles. What’s going on in the world?

In America the number of obese kids is growing rapidly. Europe, including The Netherlands, is not far behind. More and more kids are having weight problems. At the moment, they estimate that 1 in 8 kids is overweight in The Netherlands. According to the World Health Organization childhood obesity is already epidemic in some areas and on the rise in others. An estimated 22 million children under five are estimated to be overweight worldwide. According to the US Surgeon General, in the USA the number of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweight adolescents has trebled since 1980. The prevalence of obese children aged 6-to-11 years has more than doubled since the 1960s. Obesity prevalence in youths aged 12-17 has increased dramatically from 5% to 13% in boys and from 5% to 9% in girls between 1966-70 and 1988-91 in the USA. The problem is global and increasingly extends into the developing world; for example, in Thailand the prevalence of obesity in 5-to-12 year olds children rose from12.2% to 15-6% in just two years.

The Dutch government and health organizations are trying to turn the tide. Their advice: more sports, outdoor activities, less snacks and healthier meals. In my humble opinion: great advice!. Kids need to be outdoors (if the weather is nice enough), play, do sports, be active, eat healthy foods and above all have fun and enjoy themselves. To me this sounds like common sense, but when I take a look at the kids in my neighborhood I can see that is not the case.

For example: My neighbors watch their grandson several days a week.
Ever since the little guy could sit up straight, he has been given battery-powered toys like an automatic tricycle, a tractor and a hummer like car. He is so used to moving forward by the push of a button, that he can’t figure out how to ride a bike. The concept of moving his legs to get anywhere is totally foreign to him, I wonder if he’ll ever learn.

This summer this grandson, only four, got a Nintendo Gameboy. No need to play outside and interact with other kids when he has a Gameboy, right? Healthy eating isn’t a priority either, but hey I could go on and on and on but I won’t, I guess you get my drift. You can give people great and sensible advice but there is no guarantee they will listen to it.

And now, it seems that the clothing and fashion industry came to the same conclusion. Instead of supporting the government plans they have decided to change their standard kids clothing sizes. Waistbands are going to be wider and shirts are going to get bigger in the near future. By making clothes bigger there isn’t really any need to lose weight, is there? So probably kids will get bigger and bigger. I guess making a buck is much more important then the health of our future generation.