I put my daughter on fat jabs aged 11 - it wasn't a difficult decision at all and saved her from the bullies

Daily Mail​

21-07-2025

A woman who put her daughter on weight-loss jabs at the age of 11 has shared her family's experience with the medication.
Ashley Hamilton appeared on Monday's instalment of This Morning and revealed to Dermot O'Leary and Alison Hammond via video call from Idaho, America about why her young daughter is on the medication.
Both Ashley and her daughter Sophia have taken weight loss jabs to help them with their health.
The young girl opened up about her personal experience with her weight and bullying at school that led her to approach her mum for help.
She said: 'The bullying was definitely not ideal at all, it was just very hard to deal with because I used to think I was pretty and now I can't look at myself in the mirror without hating myself.'
Dermot asked: 'Ashley it's important to stress here because people can probably see a headline, you have always instilled exercise, you've always instilled a good diet and it was just very, very difficult to keep the weight off.
The young girl opened up about her personal experience with her weight and bullying at school that led her to approach her mum for help
'How hard was it for you to make that decision for Sophia to take the weight loss jabs?'
Ashley admitted it 'wasn't hard at all'.
She added: 'When she came to me and asked if this would work for her I told her yes, but we have to get your blood work done and your labs done to make sure there is an underlying problem, because if there was nothing showing right then that is something that we would've said, 'Okay, this is diet and exercise type of thing'.
'But it wasn't hard at all for me to decide that.'
The mother shared how she had done research on the medications and went on: 'I knew that if she needed it this is what we were going to do'.
When Sophia began to take the jabs, she soon noticed her mum had to remind her 'constantly' to eat.
'And then I started to lose weight and then I started to realise I actually had a lot of inflammation in my face and arms and in my hands... now I can wear normal sizes for my age,' she added.
Alison asked Ashley if she had received any backlash for her decision take weight loss injections herself.
She admitted: 'A lot of people deal with backlash on social media from people but for me it's actually been more in my real life, dealing with people who I can tell are judging me but it doesn't bother me it's a way for me to educate more people on what the reason is that I started.'
Sophia is no longer on the injections and during the conversation, This Morning's resident GP Dr Zoe Williams shared her take.
'The thing to consider, Sophia's a perfect example of this, Sophie already had insulin resistance and her blood work was showing that she had pre-diabetes,' Dr Zoe said.
'What you always have to consider is the risks and potential risks of a medication but weigh that against the risks and potential risks of doing nothing, when you've tried all the sensible things, the exercise, the changes to eating, the psychological approach, for some people like Sophia and her mum it's a genetic thing.
'Your genes predispose you to having problems with your weight..'
She added: 'In Sophia's case it seems it's been really helpful for her.'