As weight loss drugs become the norm in everyday life, more and more people have ended up taking the jabs in the UK and USA.
Whether this be high profile celebrities who’ve admitted trying Ozempic jabs in an attempt to lose weight like Jeremy Clarkson and Lizzo, or every day people speaking out about side effects of using drugs such as Mounjaro, use of weight loss injections has become widely normalised.
Ozempic is approved for treating type 2 diabetes, but has been used by some for weight loss.
Many will still raise an eyebrow, however, at the case of an 11-year-old girl being put on weight loss jabs by her mother. The pair came on ITV’s This Morning to talk about the decision, with Ashley Hamilton speaking about why she agreed to put her daughter on weight loss jabs.
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Hamilton herself is on Ozempic and has been battling struggles with her weight since she was a teenager and has lost six and a half stone since she went on the jab in 2023.
Her daughter, Sophia, went on Wegovy when she was 11-years-old to try and aid in losing weight.
Speaking on the show, Ashley first spoke about her own experience of struggling with weight and body image.
She first described how, when she was 12 herself, her father had taken a picture of her at a swimming meet and how it had made her realise her body was not the same as that of other children.
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Ashley stated there was ‘always another excuse’ from Doctors as to why she was gaining weight despite following instructions and described how it had led to ‘decades of self-loathing.’
She also stated that Ozempic worked almost right away for her and aided in her previous complicated relationship with food as the drug has been found to surpress your appetite.
Her daughter, Sofia, described having similar struggles with weight loss, sadly stating it had led her to be bullied and suffer with depression in the second grade (in which kids are roughly eight years old).
She described previously thinking she was pretty and, following the bullying, struggling to even look at herself in the mirror.
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Sofia stated that her weight loss came despite the fact that her mother has always instilled a good diet and exercise routine for her.
When asked whether the decision was difficult to put her on the drug, Ashley said: “It wasn’t hard at all, when she came to me and asked ‘would this work for her’ I told her ‘yes.’
“But we have to get your blood work done… to make sure that there is an underlying problem.”
She stated this was to ensure that, if nothing showed up on her test results, they would continue trying to resolve the weight gain with exercise and proper diet.
In a separate interview with the Daily Mail, however, she stated that her test results came back as ‘pre-diabetic and insulin resistant.’
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In this interview, she stated that her daughter had to be rushed to hospital after the sixth weekly injection describing having thrown up and experiencing intense abdominal pain.
Thankfully it was constipation, not one of the more severe side effects of the jab, but still led to her bringing Sofia off the medication.
Recently, however, weight began to creep back on despite a healthy diet and exercise routine, and she agreed to let Sofia go back on the jab.
When explaining why, she said on This Morning: “I had done enough research in general on these medications that I knew if she needed it that this is what we were gonna do.”
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Zoe Williams, a TV physician on the show, went on to point to Sofia as a success story, saying that while there are risks in taking weight loss jabs there are similar risks in doing nothing.
Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Wegovy and Ozempic, told LADbible: "Obesity is a chronic disease, with a rising prevalence among children and adolescents.
"It is predicted that by 2030, 1.3 million children and adolescents in the UK will be living with obesity.
"Obesity is a complex disease that requires long-term management and is influenced by a number of different factors including physiological, psychological, environmental, socio-economic, and genetic factors.
"Children and adolescents who have overweight or obesity are more likely to have obesity in adulthood and are more likely to develop other weight-related complications like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age.
"Novo Nordisk is focused on providing further innovation and understanding of childhood obesity through research and development.
"There is no one-size-fits-all solution to obesity. The decision to prescribe an anti-obesity medication to adolescents is at the discretion of the physician and the patient/parents, based on shared decision-making and a careful assessment of the benefits and risks.
"We trust that healthcare professionals are evaluating a patient’s individual needs and determining which medicine is right for that particular patient."
Topics: Health, ITV, Ozempic, TV, TV and Film, This Morning, Parenting
Michael Slavin