Sally writes:
Hi Swistle! I had a question and it struck me as one that you and/or your readers might be perfectly positioned to answer: What is up with 24 Months vs. 2T clothing??? My son is 20 months but on the large-ish side and I need to buy the boy some summer clothes but I cannot figure this out. This is not my first time around (the aforementioned boy has a 4 year old sister) but I am buying all new boy clothes and I am still as perplexed as ever. It seems like in some cases 24M is bigger and other times, it is the 2T. Last time I checked, 2 year olds WERE 24 months so – what gives?
Oh! I think I know this one!
Clothing manufacturers make their clothing in batches divided by age ranges—so, like, they’ll do one line for “baby” (all the sizes between 0 months and 24 months), but they do a different or overlapping line (well, or SAME I guess, if they choose) for “toddler” and for “girl” (sizes 4 to whatever is the last size before juniors). Sometimes a manufacturer will do the same outfit for both their baby line and their toddler line, which gives you the ridiculous dilemma of buying 24 months or 2T when the two outfits are basically the same size.
IN GENERAL, I’ve found that 2T tends to be a little bigger than 24 months, but it totally varies by manufacturer: some make it so close in size I can’t tell any difference, and others make the 2T way bigger than the 24 months, and others make the 2T longer but not wider (or the other way around), and so on. And some manufacturers make clothes that tend to run bigger and some make clothes that tend to run smaller, so one manufacturer’s 24 months might be significantly larger than another manufacturer’s 2T.
This makes very, very frustrating to buy clothes for a baby who is right around age 2. I usually buy sparingly and on clearance to start, until I’m familiar with the manufacturer and the fit of their 24m/2T. Henry, who is 22 months, wears some 2T, some 24m, some 18-24m, some 18m, and one pair of 12m jeans and one 3T shirt. Hey, Manufacturers! Get some standards kthanx!
It is really annoying… and I have the same experience. These days I mostly buy bigger sizes or use the eyeball measuring stick :)
This has never made sense to me…until now. I am also having issues with the 4T vs. 4 vs. XS (in the boys dept). All for the same size…I guess…but with very different results. Also…5T? I stumbled across this when looking for my younger kids. WTH? Who classifies 5 as a toddler.
-sigh- But I find sizing equally frustrating for myself. So I should be used to it, I guess.
2T – we certainly don’t have that this side of the Atlantic. Kids clothes either go by months or years. Every brand is different. Some use height or weight to help you but even so that isn’t very reliable. French/Spanish/Italian stuff tends to come up small. Scandinavian (H&M for eg) big. British in the middle. My son is a tall, skinny 2.5 so is wearing age 3 in most things but the trpusers all slip down.
Oh. Oh this is a subject very close to my heart (as in it makes my heart break because I cannot understand it) even though I’ve yet to buy kid clothes for my own. My niece just turned two and she’s a little on the small side – she’s always been a little peanut. It’s SO HARD to buy the right size for her and I’ve been reduced to shopping at Children’s Place (I’m curious as to what went down there for you Swistle) and putting all gift receipts in the package I mail because odds are my sister will have to exchange whatever I’ve bought. It drives me bonkers.
I have also heard that 24 months has room built into the cut for a diaper, where as a 2T doesn’t.
This irritates me to no end. I have a very skinny but TALL baby (who incidentally has a big dome, hence his rapper name Q-Tip) so none of this 9-12 month stuff fits him because 1) the shorts are too short, 2) the onesies don’t snap and 3) the pants are like high waters. BUT when I go up in sizes that will fit him length wise (18 months at this point – seriously he’s off the chart for height), he swims in them. I have to make sure I find pants with ties to I can tie them so they stay up.
Baby clothing sizes blow.
the same for women’s clothing, right? i have THREE different sizes in my closet! jeans, especially are hard to fit depending on the brand. i often find that i seem to be between sizes in some brands, too. i probably only fluctuate 2 or 3 lbs. (depending on time of month) so it isn’t me!
24 month clothes often have snap crotches for diaper changing while 2T don’t.
I agree that it’s very annoying. My oldest daughter is SUPER skinny and pretty tall. she can wear a 4 slim in the “girls” department but not a 4t in the toddler department. Incidentally…she’s almost 5 &1/2….but being so skinny…it makes it hard to fit her. I hate the “adjustable waist pants” because they look bunched up!
I hope she grows into her height soon!
BTW…I’ve found that Kohl’s has Sonoma brand jeans and pants for girls and that 4 slim fits very very well. If anyone else is reading this and having a hard time finding pants for a skinny kid…try those.
Anne
Kids’ clothing sizes are completely insane.
My very small for her age 3 year old wears mostly 18-24 M & 2T but she has a pair of 6-12 M leggings that are only a little short and a 4T t-shirt that fits fine. What’s up with that?
You really have to know your brands. My son was on the big side too. He went straight to 2T because they were longer which was usually the issue for us.
In this case, child is almost 2, and is a good size, I wouldn’t go 24 m. My son was in 3T by the time he was 2 and summer hasn’t even started yet.
My recommendation is 2T.
I am going through this same problem now–this past winter some 4T fit and some were a little snug and 4/XS seemed a bit too big. Now, he’s moving toward 5 and I found 5T at Old Navy which I thought was exciting. But, they are not any bigger than 4. So frustrating!!
ha – glad to hear henry is still in such a range of sizes. he and deven are a month apart and she’s still in one pair of 12m pants, several 12-18s, lots of 18s and 24m, some 2T and half a dozen 3Ts.
I once read (and experience has confirmed) that the only difference between 2T and 3T is the length. So for heaven’s sake buy 3T and cuff the legs. (I wish I’d thought to mention this to my MIL before she went shopping, as Sam has now outgrown all his cute 2T clothes.)
Just like when you shop for yourself there is no standard size. It seems that men actually have it best here since their clothing is labeled by measurement but we have still found differences between manufacturers.
I have a little girl and I usually prefer to buy the size 24m (if available) for dresses since it usually comes with a diaper cover. I don’t know why the clothing designers decided that once the child was in underwear a cover was no longer appropriate but that seems to be the case. The pants are sometimes cut a little bigger in the bum to accommodate a diaper as well which means that since I have a skinny mini kiddo I need to buy pants in a 2T.
General rule of thumb – don’t buy any 2Ts or 24ms that can’t be returned and buy clearance in a 3T so that it will fit eventually!
Gyah. I hate this too. My daughter is 1 year old but is small. She wears mainly 6-9 month clothing… so I’ll have to find what runs smaller and go with that when she’s 2… or 3. :)
Then there’s TCP (whose clothes I also love). They have
6 – 9 month (clear)
12 month (so presumably start at 9 months and go to…?
18 month (for 12 – 18? for 15 – 21?)
24 months (for 18 – 24? 21 to 30?)
3T (okay, so then 24 must go past 24 months
Ooo, I just clicked their size info and it says that 3T is for 24 to 36 months. Now that, to me, is just odd.
I sometimes can’t believe the way that I have to GUESS how the kids’ clothes run in the same way that I have to GUESS the way that my clothes sizes will run. It is BS of the highest order, especially when I think about going suit shopping with my husband last week – he strolled in, told the guy his suit size (the same it has ALWAYS been), tried it on, poof!, no problem. His self esteem was not even TOUCHED!
I find 2T to be bigger than 24 months in boy clothes, and I typically buy clothes at Target, Children’s Place and … anywhere it’s on sale but mostly those two places. My daughter is only 15 months and is wearing mostly 18 months but I prefer 12-18 months because all the straight up 18 months pants are LONG on her. It is a total pain and I would love it if there were some standards. I have also noticed recently that boy jeans and girl jeans are cut differently in the smallest of sizes which to me is just gross.
I was complaining about this to my mom who was all, “24 months has room for a diaper, 2T doesn’t, DUH.” So now I am all paranoid that I will have to potty train my kid before he hits 2T. PRESSURE!
OH, I’m glad I’m not the only one. I have twin girls who *generally* have been the same size…except now we’re at this 2T crossroads, and what fits one won’t fit the other, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason, and I’m really ready for warmer weather so we can wear shorts and T-shirts where the fit isn’t so important.
Whew, thanks for letting me get that out!!
I’ve found a lot of inconsistency in clothing brands too. If you stick with a few brands you love, you will just learn how they fit your child. Just go up a size when the other is looking too small. That’s pretty much what I do.
No kidding, right? Can there be some standards? I hate having to recall if this brand runs big, small, long, short, etc.
ha, i’ve wondered about this, and i don’t even have kids. sounds like it only gets MORE confusing, though. :-P
My 2-year-old popped the snap on his 3T Old Navy jeans but can fit into 24 month OshKosh jeans. He has a pair of 4T pants but they’re rolled up about 12 times. The size charts don’t seem to correspond to my son’s weight/height…so confusing.
There’s a lot of inconsistency, but I know my brands (we don’t generally stray, but if we do I err on the larger side)
24 months is still “baby” so it will be wider in the butt and have a snap crotch (for a shirt) or snapping legs (for pants) So for me I always got the 2T because I hate snap crotch anything. But, a lot of times the baby sizes are cheaper than the toddler sizes, so if that matters to you there you go.
I always bought a full size or two bigger if I thought I could get away with it. It’s so sweet to get 2 seasons (years) out of the same stuff.
And for stuff like pajamas, if you dont’ care about the “wear snugly” I have always bought 4 or 5T since he fit in 2T.. My kids have been wearing the same pajamas for 3 years now, AND all 3 of them can wear the same ones.
I used to work at Gymboree- there the “baby boy” clothes go from 6 months to 5T, and the “kid boy” go from size 3-10. Some of it has to do with whether you want him to look like a toddler or a small version of a fourth grader, but also, in that brand the T sizes have room cut for the diaper, fuller in the hips all the way up to 5T, whereas the big boy sizes are more slender.
I’ve found the big difference between 24 months and 2T to be the length- I think they are cut the same in the diaper area in most brands. But like you said, they’re all different!
Glad to hear others are driven nuts by this too! My sweet MIL buys so much clothing for my kids (score!), and she’s always asking what sizes they wear. When I say, “Well, D wears 12m shirts in X brand, 18m shirts in Y brand, or 12-18 in Z brand, etc.” She always responds “But I just want one size to remember!”
Me too…good thing she generally buys for the next season.
This is so true.
Does anyone have ant riddance advice for me. They are uprising and invading my living room. It has to be child safe too….
This drives me crazy too. I was finding that all the 24m or 2T stuff I was picking up for my daughter was shrinking or too short, so I recommended 3T when her second birthday came around. Some of the stuff she got is perfect, some GIGANTIC and one pair of 3T pants still too short!
DCMomma- I heard ants don’t like peppermint. I wonder if peppermint leaves or little drizzles of peppermint oil would work?
Back when Swistle and her brother were little, 24-month clothes were cut roomier in the butt (for the then-popular cloth diapers) and also had snaps in the inseam for diaper changing. The 2T size was cut slimmer in the butt for big-boy and big-girl underpants and had no snaps. I don’t remember tops having any difference between 24 months and 2T. If I remember right, the “T” in bigger sizes meant the same — size 3 had diaper allowance and snaps, 3T was for potty-trained kids. (I didn’t read all 30 comments, so sorry if I’m repeating from other comments.)
I’m in the opposite boat of many commenters, it seems, because I’ve got kids who are tall and big for their age. My 3.5-year-old daughters are wearing some 5T, some 5, some 6, depending on the cut/fit of the clothes. My most recent frustration with clothing sizes was when one of my daughters, who is at the bottom end of the 5T Old Navy size range for weight AND height, tried on a pair of the CUTEST capri pants, and they were absolutely too tight. Poor kid couldn’t sit down. Stupid capri pants! And yet, a pair of Old Navy shorts in the same size fit her just fine. WTF?
It is frustrating. I’ve just learned what brands are “true” to their size (for example, Gymboree always seems to) and what to go up on. And how weird is it that The Children’s Place doesn’t HAVE size 2T? My rule of thumb is that the cheaper the clothing, the bigger size you should buy. Most of the time this works, but my long, tall 21 month old is wearing a 3T Zutano shirt, so it really is a crap shoot!
Sizing issues don’t go away once they leave toddlerhood either. I have found it soooo hard to get clothes for both my boys, in the too-old-for-child, too-young-for-adult age group (i.e. about 12-16). HUGE selection for littlies, two racks of black hoodies or jeans for the early teens…
(note that I am in New Zealand so maybe it’s easier for others).
I have the same trouble with 4T-5T and 4-5. I’ve found that the 4T or 5T are shorter while the 4-5’s are longer. I honestly don’t remember the 24M/2T thing although I remember going through it. Stupid momnesia!
I always thought the difference betwee, 24 mos/2T was that the 24 month pants (for example) had snaps on the legs for easy diaper changes and the 2T pants don’t have the snaps…
I have this problem all the time and couldn’t really figure it out. I’m sure that there are reasons for each manufacturer’s choice, but they seem to be opposite reasons, depending on their logic.
I have a 15 month daughter who is in some 9m, some 12m, some 18m, and the odd 24m clothing. She’s almost exactly ‘average’ in size according to the charts, so… WEIRD.
I have an additional problem in that I use cloth diapers, so finding pants that are big enough in the bum but aren’t HUGE everywhere else is an issue. GRR.
Thanks Swistle and Swistle readers for the feedback and commiseration. At least I’m not alone in dealing with the madness! My son is a little larger than average but long bodied and short legged so I tend to buy larger shirts and smaller pants or have my mom hem them. (Thank goodness for my mom and her mad sewing skilZ!) The only things I’ve bought so far are super-duper cheapo “Granamals” shorts and shirts and some Carter’s PJs. The 2T is noticibly bigger than 24 months in the Carter’s PJ and while the sign claimed the Granamals came in both sizes, all I saw were 24M.
Now on to deal with my HUGE 4 year old daughter in the 5T (seriously? T at 5?)/5,6-6x/XS-S minefield. There I find you can get really cute “T” PJs or Hanna Montana on everything larger. UGH.
Thanks!
Sally
Yeah, I’m with Swistle’s mom, back when my kids were able to wear “T’s” and not S-M-L-SL’s , the 24 mos. was cut big in the diaper area and the 2T was not.
Just that simple, but now with all the complexities of life, like cable TV, DVR’s, Twitter and sealed up Tylenol bottles, I really don’t know what sizes mean anymore. I just know if you want your toddler to look like a mini me, then shop at Old Navy, where the clothes sizes are all whacked out – made in Vietnam-revenge sizes,and are apt to look like little 13 year olds. Complete with cleavage or lack there of.
While they’re at it, can we get the adult clothing manufacturers to have a set standard, too?
And how about food manufacturers? Can you set a list of ingredients for those of us with allergies and just stick with it? :)
The good thing in a way is that they are in the 24 month 2T size such a short time, and also the places I shop have decent return policies so I can exchange whatever doesn’t fit.
Interestingly, I have a pair of shorts for my children in 36 months. I don’t see that too often, but strange, eh? (I think I bought them from Gymboree three or four years ago.)
As for Old Navy, not only do their size charts do me no good (even with precise waist and hip measurements I have pants that fit in sizes 6, 8 and 12) but when I was in the store a couple weeks ago carrying my daughter’s foot measurement, two employees were unable to tell me which size sneaker would fit. They had a size chart at the till / cash register, but it had only ages, and not a single inches or centimeters measurement.
Obviously stupid, because do they honestly believe every 2 year old has the exact same foot size?
I think it’s time for a consumer uprising about sizing in clothes & shoes being so meaningless. Surely the mommy bloggers & their readers could make this problem get fixed?
I remember being told as a kid that catalog companies had to adhere to some size regulation becuase of interstate commerce regulations or some such. So you were supposed to be able to trust the sizing charts in the catalogs to reflect your true size, no matter what the cute little mall shops clothes tags said.
But, it was either a lie, or no longer applies.