My daughter did get the injections from the age of about 14 months until she was about 11. I can't help you with side effects because she was just a baby when she started on the lupron. She received a shot monthly only after many, many tests. She had brain scans, ultrasounds, Pap tests, X-rays, numerous day long blood tests, etc. I did talk with a couple adults who took the lupron for only a couple months for issues they had. They said they were miserable on the medicine and could not believe that my daughter took it as long as she did. We really had no choice as her bones (bone age) thought she was more than seven when she was barely a year old. Once your bones think you are about twelve for a girl they close up and you don't grow much at all at that point. I would really look into it before giving her the shots. If she's 8 1/2 already maybe you just need to start explaining what's going to happen. Good luck.