[noscript_1]
Children as young as ten should be considered for weight loss jabs, the World Health Organisation has announced.
The global health specialists said children and teenagers may be able to use powerful slimming injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.
Severely obese youngsters may also be eligible for weight loss operations such as a gastric band or sleeve surgery, under certain conditions, according to the new guidance.
The experts stressed that those aged ten to 19 must first try to lose weight through diet and exercise.
But if those methods fail, treatment with medicines and surgery could now be a viable option.
Children aged nine and under should not be given the treatments, however, World Health Organisation (WHO) officials clarified.
In the UK, doctors can currently prescribe some of the jabs to children as young as 12, and in England some have received them at 11.
British doctors can also prescribe Mounjaro to children over ten if they have type 2 diabetes.
Children as young as ten may be eligible for weight loss jabs, the World Health Organisation has announced
Announcing its first-ever guidelines on childhood and adolescent obesity, the WHO said: ‘For adolescents aged 10–19 years, treatment with approved medicines may be considered only when a supervised […] lifestyle programme has not achieved the desired results.
‘Bariatric surgery may be considered under strict conditions for adolescents with severe obesity. ‘
The announcement comes as childhood obesity rates across the globe and in the UK continue to rise.
More than 170 million children aged five to 19 are classed as obese worldwide – a rate that has quadrupled since 1990.
Hundreds of obese four-year-olds have also been treated in NHS obesity clinics.
Dr Luz María De Regil, Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the WHO, said the basis for childhood obesity care ‘is not medicine or surgery but access to comprehensive support that enables healthy eating, physical activity and sustainable behaviour change’.
She added: ‘Our priority must be to ensure that every child and adolescent can access quality care and supportive environments from an early age, helping them achieve and maintain a healthy weight and laying the foundation for lifelong health and well-being.’
