NEARLY 6,500 children have been treated for obesity at NHS clinics since 2021 and hundreds were given fat jabs.
Figures show 423 youngsters were aged just four when health chiefs stepped in to tackle their size.
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Almost 6,500 children have received treatment for obesity at NHS clinics since 2021 Credit: Getty
Figures also reveal that hundreds of kids have been handed powerful fat jabs Credit: Getty
Those patients had an average weight of 5st 3lbs — the same as a ten-year-old.
One in five kids at the clinics already had adult health issues, such as high blood pressure or Type 2 diabetes.
Prof Simon Kenny, child health director at NHS England, said: “Childhood obesity remains one of the biggest public health challenges facing the country.”
Katherine Jenner, of the Obesity Health Alliance, added: “These figures should be a wake-up call.”
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The NHS opened the first of England’s 39 clinics for children with complications from excess weight (CEW) in 2021.
It said they have treated 6,497 four to 17-year-olds since then.
Records showed 1,088 were between five and eight years old, 1,791 between nine and 12 and 3,137 aged 13 to 17.
Around 400 schoolchildren have been prescribed powerful GLP-1 weight-loss jabs such as Wegovy or Mounjaro, which are an option above the age of 11.
NHS figures show 11 per cent of children are obese by the time they start school. This increases to 22 per cent by Year Six.
Kids who are referred to the CEW clinics are the most dangerously overweight.
Dr Helen Stewart, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said the numbers being treated at them was “extremely concerning”.
