Do Baby Clothing Sizes Confuse You?

Baby clothes sizes confuse me. They confused me while I was pregnant and they still confuse me. I also learned the sizes are labeled differently in other parts of the world. Now I know why people dislike family and friends buying clothes for their kids – unless they actually know the size – because they don’t make sense!

12 month sized sundress

Someone somewhere took the approximate weight and height ranges and decided to label clothes as fitting in those months. I don’t care if they are sizing specialist child-experts, they are doing something wrong! How many babies do you know who actually grow at a rate to match?

At first I thought Rissa actually would fit to age. She did for several months, but it’s gotten harder for me to figure out what to cut tags off of (no sense removing tags and washing something she won’t fit into), what to buy and what to put away/donate/sell. She’s so skinny and long! When she was born she weighed 6lbs 10oz so all her 0-3 month clothes were baggy. She drowned in them until she reached 8lbs, but we did have some NB (newborn) stuff that fit better.

She was born at the end of October and fit into NB clothes through the end of December. As she sprouted long ways, it was hard to button onesies, yet they were baggy around her middle. As I transitioned her into 0-3 month, I started accumulating 3-6 month – summer stuff!

Well. Umm. She continued to get taller… Taller than average (why does it seem like everyone I know has kids at the 80-90th percentile range…it seems normal to have above average height babies these days!)…

So it was still winter and she needed to wear 3-6 month but most of what i had were summer dresses. Not fitting for February and March in Wisconsin, let me tell ya. Most of the 3-6 month stuff simply got skipped over. I was so sad that she didn’t wear half of it!

But here’s where I find it gets really odd and confusing. She’s still wearing some 3-6 month shirts and a couple 3-6 onesies that fit fine. Her 6-9 month pants don’t fit the best but I think it’s because of her fluffy butt. Her 9mo and 12mo dresses are the right length but are baggy on her.

And I don’t want to admit all the clothes I have that still have tags on them. (I bought “ahead” while pregnant from sales and such mostly.)  Then there are the clothes that were gifted to us. Most were not the right size for the season. Like, for Christmas someone bought her 6-9 month fleece outfit – all warm – pants, long sleeves, hoodie. But she would fit into it (well, almost too long now) now during the summer.

I remember while I was pregnant asking people for advice on shopping for baby clothes. One friend told me her daughter always wore double her age. To me that just seems silly to have “age” on the size if it’s way off like that. Another friend in Australia said the clothes there are size 00 and size 000 …. I was lost.

I need tall and skinny baby clothes. Other’s need short and chunky. These sizes are outdated, don’t you think?

Darcy Zalewski

Darcy is the founder of “Life With Darcy and Brian,” where she combines her love for education, board games, and crafting to create engaging learning experiences for kids. Her creative projects and writing have been featured in outlets like The Toy Insider, CafeMom, Mom.com, Parents.com, Country Living, and The Pioneer Woman.