New global guidelines warn against obesity drugs for children under 10
Care should focus on healthy eating and exercise, not medicines such as weight-loss injections, says the World Health Organization
Children under 10 should not be given obesity drugs or GLP-1 weight-loss injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, new global guidelines, external from the World Health Organization say.
Most of these medications are only licensed for children or adolescents older than this, but some doctors prescribe them off-label, and drug companies are testing them in children as young as six.
WHO says the care should focus on healthy eating and exercise, not medicine or surgery, although they do not oppose drug trials.
Some digital technology, such as activity trackers and any online games that encourage the player to be more active and move, might be useful, it says, based on the limited evidence available.
Concerning rates of child obesity
Estimates suggest 170 million children and adolescents worldwide are obese.
That includes 70 million children aged 5–9. Obesity prevalence in this age group has quadrupled since 1990, rising from 2% to 8%.
In 2024, 35 million children under the age of five were overweight.
Obesity increases the risk of many different diseases, including type 2 diabetes.
Dr Luz De Rigil, Director of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO, said: "For children under 10, WHO does not recommend obesity medicines, bariatric surgery or weight-management devices. This is a strong recommendation."
These might be appropriate for older children and adolescents when lifestyle approaches have failed and if the individual is "mentally and physically prepared" for the treatment, she added.
She said WHO recognises this is an evolving field and will continue to evaluate the evidence.
WHO's head of Nutrition and Food Safety Actions, Laurence Grummer-Strawn, said: "We are particularly concerned in this age group, if you are starting children very early on to using a GLP-1 or drugs like this, when does that stop?
"We don't really have evidence that you can use this as a temporary treatment and then turn to something dietary later on in life.
"We are very cautious about jumping in without clear evidence," he said.
