Doctors concerned about demand for super-size school uniforms

News that super-size school uniforms are being sold to children as young as 11 is being met with concern.

Approximately one in four Irish primary school children is overweight or obese.

Some uniforms now have 50-inch waistlines to cope with demand and some schools have had to order specially-made large classroom tables and chairs.

General practitioner Ciara Kelly said educating parents was the key to change.

"There's a generation of parents out there who are obese, who don't recognise that their children are also obese and who don't even see it as a problem," she said.

"(They) are setting their children up for health problems later in life. Listen, you wouldn't give your child a cigarette, (would you?)"