Marks and Spencer to offer plus sized uniforms for obese children

Major British retailer Marks & Spencer are now offering overweight and obese children school uniforms in larger sizes as childhood obesity continues to grow in the UK.

The ‘plus’ range offers preschool children as young as 4 trousers with 23” waistlines, a size usually worn by 8 year olds according to usual Marks & Spencer measurements.

Campaigners have responded to the move, saying that it further highlights the increasingly worrying issue of obesity for young children.

It is believed that around a quarter of all children who start primary school are already overweight or obese, this figure reaches around a third of all children by the time that they reach secondary school. This means that around 2.3 million children in the UK are classified as overweight or obese.

As a result of these statistics, M&S said that the demand for plus-sized uniforms was ‘significant’ and have launched the range as a trial for the upcoming school year.

A spokesman for M&S has described the range as a “small online trial running in response to customer demand. Marks and Spencer is the leading school wear retailer and we want to make sure our school wear range is accessible for children of all shapes and sizes." The range is described by the website as "cut more generously for larger sizes". The prices of the plus range are exactly the same as the uniforms in other sizes.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, has labelled the range as “actual commercial recognition of what we have known for some time…that obesity in pre-schoolers is building up.

Now 27% of entrants to primary schools are overweight or obese." Mr Fry has urged parents to “Not fail in their responsibility - it is they (the parents) that put food in their children's mouths, send their children out to play.”

The NHS spends an estimated £4 billion a year treating obesity related problems; this could increase to £6.3 billion by 2015. Mr Fry stated that he had no problem with M&S selling the products, but attacked the government, saying that they had “consistently ducked out of regulating the food industry.”