WAISTLINES of girls starting secondary school are more than three inches bigger than those of their counterparts 30 years ago, according to a new study.

Data collated from 3D scans of more than 2500 children also found 11-year-old boys have waist, chest and hip measurements all bigger than the same age-group three decades ago.

The results of Shape GB’s National Childrenswear Survey, which is part publicly funded, show how children’s body shapes have ballooned since the last major survey -- which was released by the British Standards Institute in 1990 and based on measurements taken from more than 8300 children in 1978.

Tam Fry, chair of the Child Growth Foundation and a National Obesity Forum board member, said he was “horrified but not surprised” by the findings, which included scans of 250 children in Edinburgh.

He said: “It horrifies me that we now have 11-year-olds who are so thick around the waist. That is bad news for now and possibly a harbinger of worse news to come. Men and women can acquire nasty core morbidity as a result of being fat.

“We have to do much more about preventing our children from becoming fat. That is done not by blaming parents but by changing the environment. We have an obesogenic environment at the moment. A lot of food is less than healthy.

“Governments, of whatever hue, have to tell the food and beverage industry not to make or advertise goods which are less than healthy.”

Official figures for 2009/10 showed a fifth of primary one children in Scotland were overweight, but research earlier this year said more than half of Scots parents could not tell when a girl weighed more than is healthy.

It prompted warnings by experts that a plumper figure is now considered normal by families and health professionals.

The Shape GB survey found the average 11-year-old girl is 58.3 inches tall, compared with 57.5 inches in 1978. Her waistline is 27.5 inches compared with 23.6 inches in 1978.

Because the 3D scanner does not compress the skin and also measures the small of the back, it produces width measurements 0.7 inches larger than a tape measure. Even accounting for that, the average 11-year-old girl’s waist has increased by 3.28 inches or 13.9%.

The average boy of 11 now stands 58.33 inches tall, up from 56.94 inches in 1978. His waist has expanded, from 24.20 inches in 1978 to 27.56 inches today.

Richard Barnes, MD of Select Research, said: “Measuring body shape in 3D may provide us with new insights on the actual risk to health and change perceptions of what health interventions are required.”