Conspiracy and the Clothes
I am not a big fan of “character” clothing. Yes, my girls have some Dora T-shirts and Jammies. There are even some Elmo pieces in their drawers. But I prefer them not to wear them.
No there is no real moral reason for it. It’s more of a conspiracy theory type thing. I first discovered the problem when the Big One was about 18 months old. She has always been and continues to be true to size when it comes to clothes. When she was an infant, she fit right along with what the clothes all said. She wore 0-3 clothes up until she was about 3 months old and so on. So for her first birthday she got a Dora outfit – jeans, shirt and vest – in size 18 months.
I didn’t think anything of putting the outfit in the 18 month box and storing it for a bit. As she got closer to 18 months old, I pulled the outfit out. Well the darn shirt was way too small and the jeans wouldn’t go over her hips. I thought it was a bit odd, but didn’t think much of it. Then she got a couple more “character” type outfits and sure enough they were all much smaller than her “regular” clothes.
Those darn manufacturers, I think plan it this way. They know there are parents like the FixItMommy who trust those labels. And by the time we try them on, they are too small. Of course, my child has now seen the outfit and will throw a fit until I can go out and buy a bigger size that will actually fit her. That way we perpetuate the character lines of clothing.
So for those of you reading this, please remember when it comes to character clothing, buy bigger or else you will regret it later.
fixitmommy.com 
Most of the “character” clothing is really sleazy-feeling polyester fabric so we just say “no” and avoid buying it. Thus far, our Big One (also known as DS1 in the BabyCenter forums) hasn’t asked for any particular clothing, so at 31 months, we still make the apparel choices unilaterally.
Our Big One started out life way down around the 15th and lower percentiles, despite being born at 37 weeks and not THAT small (a hair under 7 lbs at birth). But he grew FAST and within a couple clothing sizes, he was OUTgrowing clothing at half the marked size. IOW, he outgrew 12 mo clothing at 6 mos and began wearing 18 mo sizes then. He kept it up into the Toddler sizes, and finally we breathed a sigh of relief when he managed to stay in a size 3T for almost a whole year.
The one exception is pajamas. Even in the Carter’s line, he tends to require a size larger than the clothes in his closet. And don’t even try Old Navy pajamas; those are so tight (in any size, I swear) I think he would lose circulation if he actually wore them.