A mother from Idaho has explained why she placed her young daughter on weight loss medication.
The root of this story, however, began in Ashley’s childhood, where she saw a picture of herself as a kid that initiated her battle with weight.
"I was 12, and my dad took a photo of me at a swim meet, and I didn’t know that anything was different about me until I saw that picture. I just looked different to the other girls on the swim team," she said.
Joining Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary on yesterday's (July 21) episode of This Morning alongside her 11-year-old, Sophia, Ashley Hamilton further explained her struggles with weight loss, before she was questioned about the need for her daughter's injections.
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Sophia herself went on to reveal that school bullies were the catalyst.
"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," she said via video link.
O'Leary asked her mum in response: "Ashley, it's important to stress here, you have always instilled exercise, you've always instilled a good diet and it was just very, very difficult to keep the weight off. How hard was it for you to make that decision for Sophia to take the weight loss jabs?"
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It wasn't difficult 'at all', according to Hamilton, yet she did attach some stipulations if her daughter really did want to go down the jab route.
"When she came to me and asked if this would work for her, I told her yes," she told the ITV presenters, "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."
Hamilton, who also went on to use the meds, suggested she'd gathered more than enough data on the product before giving her daughter the green light.
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Sophia had to be 'constantly' reminded to eat by her mum when she first started injecting herself.
"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," recounted the youngster.
"Now I can wear normal sizes for my age."
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Meanwhile, Hammond was keen to hear if the mum had been contending with any backlash after taking this rather lifestyle drastic action.
"A lot of people deal with backlash on social media from people but for me it's actually been more in my real life," she revealed. "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."
Following the interview, This Morning's medical consultant Dr. Zoe Williams weighed in on the Hamiltons' divisive story.
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"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," she began.
"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. In Sophia's case it seems it's been really helpful for her."
Topics: Mounjaro, This Morning, Health
Dan Seddon