Hundreds of children in England are receiving prescriptions for GLP-۱ medications, including some younger than ۱۲, the Guardian can reveal.
GLP-۱ medications were initially developed to help people with type ۲ diabetes control their blood sugar levels, but have since become a popular slimming aid, with products such as Wegovy and Mounjaro becoming household names.
While social media is awash with adults who have lost weight with GLP-۱s, data shows a number of children are also being prescribed them.
A Guardian investigation has revealed that in the financial year ۲۰۲۵-۲۶ there were ۴۱۹ prescriptions issued to children under the age of ۱۸, ۱۰ of which were for children under the age of ۱۲.
And in the four months from April to July this year, ۳۴۱ prescriptions for GLP-۱s were issued to children, ۱۵ of whom were under the age of ۱۲.
The figures, obtained from the NHS Business Services Authority through freedom of information requests, relate to prescriptions in England and dispensed in a community setting anywhere in the UK.
However, they do not cover those prescribed and dispensed via private prescriptions, in prisons, and in hospitals, meaning the figures are likely to be a considerable underestimate.
One private clinic for children has previously revealed it has more than ۲۰۰ patients receiving the jabs. It is also unclear whether the GLP-۱ figures reflect medications that are being given primarily for weight loss.
Martin Whyte, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Surrey, said the number of prescriptions was still small relative to the scale of childhood obesity, but those taking the drugs needed long-term change to their lifestyles.
He said: “The important thing is that children who start them do so within specialist services, with support for diet, growth and wellbeing, and a plan for the long term.
“That includes regular monitoring of growth and puberty, nutritional intake, mental health and eating behaviours, and side effects. This matters partly because we know weight tends to return when the drugs are stopped, and partly because we still have limited data on use over many years in growing young people.”
The rising use of GLP-۱s comes as levels of childhood obesity are increasing. Figures from the National Child Measurement Programme show that ۱۰.۷% of reception-year children (ages ۴ and ۵) are obese, while that rises to ۲۲.۸% for children in year ۶ (ages ۱۰ and ۱۱).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ۴۰۰ million children and adolescents aged between five and ۱۹ were overweight in ۲۰۲۴, including ۱۷۰ million living with obesity.
As part of efforts for early intervention, the NHS began piloting Complications from Excess Weight (CEW) clinics from ۲۰۲۱, aimed at children aged two to ۱۶ with severe obesity.
In May, NHS England revealed almost ۶,۵۰۰ children have since been referred to such clinics, including more than ۴۰۰ younger than four.
Hundreds of young people have received weight-loss medications through such services – although only some CEW clinics can access funding to offer GLP-۱s, and these are typically dispensed through hospital pharmacies.
Dr Dunia Ismail, a consultant paediatrician who runs a CEW clinic, said experts were now looking at widening the use of GLP-۱s in such settings. “We have been sticking to ۱۲ [years], although now we are looking at expanding that to eight-plus once licence-approved,” she said.
Last month, new global guidelines from the WHO stated obesity medications, including GLP-۱s, should not be given to children under the age of ۱۰.
However, recent data from a trial involving ۱۶۵ children aged ۶ to under ۱۲ – run by the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which produces Wegovy and Victoza – has suggested GLP-۱s can help young children with obesity.
Julian Hamilton-Shield, a professor in diabetes and metabolic endocrinology and a clinician at the Bristol Complications CEW clinic, said typically children who receive semaglutide at CEW clinics had been unable to lose weight through standard dietary and nutritional advice and psychological support.
“Probably, in the vast majority of cases, they have a secondary comorbidity such as type ۲ diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, liver disease, intracranial hypertension – you name it, they’ve got it,” he said. “So it’s been used as an adjunct after standard therapies haven’t really helped. However, it is used quite frequently and it is a very effective drug.”
Hamilton-Shield stressed GLP-۱ medications were given to children who have very high excess weight. “You’d call it morbid obesity if you were classifying it as adults,” he said.
The use of GLP-۱s in children has reignited a debate about the drivers of childhood obesity, but experts say it is important to avoid blaming patients or their families.
“We’re a health service that delivers health to the people who require it. We’re not one that makes moral judgments about people,” said Hamilton-Shield. “Nobody’s saying that every child who’s a bit heavy should have a GLP-۱.”
Hamilton-Shield added: “These children and young people are from very complex backgrounds, have enormous lack of self-esteem. They’re not attending school. They’ve got all these complications. They’ve got all the stigma. And when you actually give them a drug that helps them to lose maybe ۲۵, ۳۰kg, [it is] the first time they feel they have any agency in their lives at all, and that will have a transformative effect in its own right.”
Ismail also stressed the importance of GLP-۱s for children. “We know now that obesity is not a choice, it’s a condition,” she said. “We’re giving them GLP-۱s because there is nothing else you can do at this stage. Otherwise, they will die young, they will have heart disease, they will have diabetes … It’s just terrible what could happen to them if we don’t.”
