A mum has given her daughter the weight loss drug Ozempic because she doesn’t want her to get fat.
Kait Handler, 40, from New York, has had problems with her own weight in the past so when she saw her 12-year-old daughter Birdie develop similar issues aged eight, the mum knew she had to take action.
This included monitoring what her daughter ate, sending her to therapy, making her walk and sending her to weight-loss camp.
But Birdie became clinically obese this year and this is when things took a different turn.
Kait said she had taken weight loss medication herself which saw her lose 5.3 stone.
The mum turned to Mochi – a telehealth obesity clinic – that prescribed her the weight loss drug after being turned away from the first doctor.
Birdie was prescribed semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, following a virtual consultation.
Kait told the Wall Street Journal: ‘She’s struggling with her own self-worth and this could alleviate those issues.
‘Why wouldn’t I give her the tool that she would need to do that?’
An increase in the use of the drug among 12 to 15-year-old has shot up from 8,700 in 2020 to 60,000 in 2023.
This is because of the approval of Wegovy for weight loss in children over age 12.
The cost for Birdie is $79 a month, with an additional $99 a month fee for the medication.
Since taking it she has lost 0.7 stone on top of the 1.2 stone she lost at weight-loss camp.
Birdie said: ‘When I look at myself, I don’t have as much shame as I did before.
‘The happier I get, the sadder I’ll be when I’m not happy anymore.’
She said she had ‘mild nausea’ as one of the side effects and her appetite is now easier to control.
But Dr Joyce Lee, a University of Michigan pediatrician, said some children report extreme nausea, vomiting or constipation.
Family stress has also been reduced, according to Birdie’s dad.
He said this is because ‘the drug has eased the friction that tends to develop between parents and children over weight battles, removing the need for emotional discussions about eating’.
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