The wider use comes as childhood obesity in England remains high and is rising. Figures from the National Child Measurement Programme show that 10.7% of reception-year children, aged 4 and 5, are obese, rising to 22.8% of children in year 6, aged 10 and 11.
Hundreds of children in England have been prescribed GLP-1 weight-loss medicines, a Guardian investigation has found, including a small number under the age of 12.
In the financial year 2025-26, 419 prescriptions were issued to children under 18, 10 of them to children under 12, the investigation reported.
In the four months from April to July this year, 341 GLP-1 prescriptions were issued to children, 15 of whom were under 12.
Those figures do not cover drugs prescribed and dispensed through private prescriptions, in prisons, or in hospitals. The true total is therefore likely to be a considerable underestimate.
It is also unclear whether the prescriptions were issued primarily for weight loss.
GLP-1 medicines were first developed to help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar. Products such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have since become widely used slimming aids, and prescribing data show that children are receiving them too.
In May, NHS England revealed that almost 6,500 children had been referred to specialist clinics for excess weight, including more than 400 younger than four.
Hundreds of young people have received weight-loss medicines through such services. Only some CEW clinics can access funding to offer GLP-1s, and those drugs are typically dispensed through hospital pharmacies.
One private clinic for children has previously revealed that it has more than 200 patients receiving the jabs.
Hamilton-Shield said the drugs were not being offered casually."Nobody's saying that every child who's a bit heavy should have a GLP-1,"he said. He added that they were used quite frequently, were very effective, and were given to children with very high excess weight.
He said the children and young people came from very complex backgrounds and had an enormous lack of self-esteem."We're not one that makes moral judgments about people,"Hamilton-Shield said."We're a health service that delivers health to the people who require it.".
Dr Dunia Ismail, a consultant paediatrician who runs a CEW clinic, said experts were now looking at widening the use of GLP-1s in such settings. She also stressed their importance for children.
The prescribing has renewed debate about what drives childhood obesity. officials say it is important not to blame patients or their families.
Specialists have also pointed to limits. Weight tends to return when the drugs are stopped, and data on use over many years in growing young people remain limited. One doctor said children who start them should do so within specialist services, with support for diet, growth and wellbeing, and a plan for the long term.