One-in-five struggle to fit into clothes for Communion

IT’S a huge day in any child’s life. But First Communion has suddenly become an even bigger event for all the wrong reasons.

Soaring levels of childhood obesity in Ireland mean one-in-five children can no longer fit into regular-sized Holy Communion outfits.

Irish retailers say eight and nine-year-olds are now so fat they have had to stock hundreds of extra made-to-order oversized dresses and trousers.

Some eight-year-old girls have ballooned so much, that they have no choice but to don enormous dresses with a 48” chest-size for their First Communion.

And increasing numbers of worryingly-obese boys of the same age are wearing trousers with waists up to 38” for their big day.

Doris Healy, who runs Communion costume retailers, The Sisters, in Tallaght in west Dublin, said 20% of her sales are now made up of oversized outfits.

“I’ve been running this business for 23 years and I’m alarmed at the size of the children now. Certainly 10 years ago everyone could fit into regular-sized outfits and it was very rare to see a child who was obese.

“But things have changed dramatically since then. A few years ago I started to notice that we were having big problems, because girls were coming in and we just didn’t have dresses big enough for them to fit into. The same was the case for boys. We didn’t have big enough trousers for them.

“Every year, we have to order bigger sizes and more of them to accommodate the customers. Some girls need dresses with a 48” chest, which is big enough to fit three normal-sized women in.

“And for the boys, we are getting trousers made, which we call a ‘sturdy fit’, which accommodate bigger bottoms and thighs. We’re selling trousers with 38” waists for boys who are only nine and we have to mix and match these with suits all the time.”

Ms Healy says the alarming change in the size of her young customers leaves her in no doubt that Ireland is losing the battle on childhood obesity.

Just over a year ago a government-funded study, Growing Up In Ireland, found that 23% of nine-year-olds from semi-skilled or unskilled backgrounds were overweight, compared to 18% of children from professional backgrounds.

Some studies claim as many as 300,000 Irish children are now classified as obese, with that number increasing by 10,000 a year.

Ms Healy, in her 70s, said: “I started to notice the difference in the Celtic Tiger years. With more mums out working and more fast food outlets, kids stopped eating proper meals.

“When people were poor, it was never a problem because people ate more healthily. Mums would cooks stews and healthy old-fashioned food.

“Hopefully in the next three years we will return to those days.”

But she said she didn’t expect to be selling more regular-sized costumes until the attitudes of parents changed.

“Recently an eight-year-old, who was 12 stone, came into the shop with her mother. She was swigging from a bottle of coke and her mother promised to take her to McDonald’s if she was good.

“That’s why childhood obesity has become such a massive problem. The issue is just not highlighted enough.”

Last week it was also revealed that more and more cash-strapped mothers are being forced to sell off their children’s Communion outfits to make ends meet instead of storing them as keepsakes.