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Original poster

Weight loss injections for children

33 replies

transformer · 04/01/2025 11:09

NC and hard hat in situ.

I've listened to counting the threads I've seen on weight loss injections and what a miracle they are for those who are overweight or obese. There have been lots of posters questioning if the NHS will roll out the drugs to everyone who needs them and it hit me thinking about obese children. Will this possible roll out include kids? Should kids be on weight loss injections? Will we see whole families on these drugs? Will healthy eating and lifestyle and psychological support be provided for these families? Where would the funding come from? So many questions about these so called miracle drugs.

Posters often say that these drugs will ease the burden on the NHS in the long term but at the moment they are only available to those who meet the strict criteria or lie to obtain them. Weight loss clinics have long waiting lists and it's next to impossible to get these drugs on the NHS unless you are diabetic because these drugs were developed for diabetes.

Should the focus be on preventing long term problems in overweight and obese kids to avoid the burden on the NHS when they become obese adults with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancers etc?

Are people too focused on these miracle drugs as an easier cure for weight problems?

It's a complex issue and I don't have the answers. There are too many factors at play for a simple solution as far as I can see. The whole obeseogenic environment argument, fractured families, long working hours, both parents working, kids not playing out and being on computer games for hours instead of being outside, snack culture, fast food culture, ultra processed foods, poverty etc. I agree these don't help but we do have agency to make good choices for ourselves and our kids.
It's complex but ultimately are weight loss injections going to solve the obesity crisis for adults and kids alike?

OP posts:
Original poster
transformer · 04/01/2025 11:42

A longitudinal study of obese children given weight loss injections would be interesting.
I don't really buy the obeseogenic environment as the reason for obesity at a societal level. We have choices. If it's societal why isn't everybody obese?

OP posts:
CraftyNavySeal · 04/01/2025 11:42

VoyagerOfTheTeenYears · 04/01/2025 11:28

Are people too focused on these miracle drugs as an easier cure for weight problems

is easier the right word when other interventions just don’t work on a societal level?

I think there have been some successful studies in children. I agree it doesn’t sound ideal.

To make the necessary environmental changes needed to make a difference to the population you would need to treat UPFs like we currently do cigarettes. There would be massive economic implications affecting people ability to pay for food and affecting things like pension funds. People wouldn’t accept the restrictions and inconvenience of having to cook everything fresh again.

I do agree that it is madness having unhealthy food and drugs to counteract them but I don’t know if there is a workable healthy way out of the situation we have got ourselves into.

Edited

Yep I don’t think people would be too happy with the actual solution which would be effectively going back to a 1950s level of food availability. Getting rid of 95% of fast food outlets, 90% of processed crap in the supermarkets.

People eat cheap tasty calorific food designed to be addictive because it’s there and a lot of people lack the executive function required to avoid it.

It’s like the gambling industry depends on a small group of problematic users. If we actually did eat processed food at a moderate level then the industry would not exist.

FranticHare · 04/01/2025 11:31

WestwardHo1 · 04/01/2025 11:26

Something in me really balks at this. Or at least without a fundamental and honest appraisal into why children are getting so fat 😥.

It would seem very much like a sticking plaster.

This. It seems so so wrong.

Perhaps as another pp wrote, the injections for the parents will force changes within the family unit. Or the injections will be seen as an easy future solution, and people will eat more shit in the basis it will be easy to lose the weight down the line.

VoyagerOfTheTeenYears · 04/01/2025 11:28

Are people too focused on these miracle drugs as an easier cure for weight problems

is easier the right word when other interventions just don’t work on a societal level?

I think there have been some successful studies in children. I agree it doesn’t sound ideal.

To make the necessary environmental changes needed to make a difference to the population you would need to treat UPFs like we currently do cigarettes. There would be massive economic implications affecting people ability to pay for food and affecting things like pension funds. People wouldn’t accept the restrictions and inconvenience of having to cook everything fresh again.

I do agree that it is madness having unhealthy food and drugs to counteract them but I don’t know if there is a workable healthy way out of the situation we have got ourselves into.

WestwardHo1 · 04/01/2025 11:26

Something in me really balks at this. Or at least without a fundamental and honest appraisal into why children are getting so fat 😥.

It would seem very much like a sticking plaster.

soupfiend · 04/01/2025 11:23

I probably, largely, dont have an issue with children being on medication that is required. Plenty of children are on ADHD meds for example because we know the alternative is a life and childhood of limitations and negativity

But we do have to ask why the UK compared to other countries in Europe is one of the worst for this, we dont have more trauma or 'emotional eating', or problems with insulin regulation, or resistance to good foods than other countries

Therefore its not us and our bodies, its our society.

I think its probably more helpful also to see WLI as a wider positive medication for protection for lots of other illness, I know they're not prescribed for that, but the research about heart health, parkinsons, dementia protection etc etc, support for gamblers and drinkers, its very positive.

InkHeart2024 · 04/01/2025 11:21

I wonder whether having parents on WLI will have a knock on effect on what the children are given to eat. Less invective to buy high calorie foods maybe.

Catza · 04/01/2025 11:18

When I was doing my plasters, I did a lit review on biopsychosocial interventions for weight management in children. While it is tempting to think that education about healthy eating, lifestyle and such is the ultimate solution, research shows that these interventions are ineffective. The problem is much larger and solutions need to include a complete restructuring of society which is unrealistic, unfortunately. So yes, injections are an "easy fix" to avoid complex problems down the line. Maybe it is not right but it is the only feasible solution at present.

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