San Francisco child protective services are investigating a mother who sparked outrage after telling a national television audience that she had injected her 8-year-old daughter’s face with Botox to make her more competitive in beauty pageants.
The Human Services Agency opened the investigation after Kerry Campbell — appearing on “Good Morning America” Thursday — discussed giving the wrinkle remover to her daughter, Britney. Callers flooded San Francisco’s child abuse hot line afterward.
“There was a pretty big community response,” said Trent Rhorer, director of human services. Hesaid he also heard from “Entertainment Tonight” and plenty of other news outlets.
According to published reports, Campbell lived in Birmingham, England, and recently moved to San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle was not able to find a current telephone or address listing for her.
Campbell first talked publicly about using Botox on her child in the British newspaper the Sun in March. Photographs accompanying the story showed Campbell demonstrating how she injected the drug herself into Britney’s forehead. She repeated the demonstration on “Good Morning America.”
Campbell told the newspaper and the hosts of the television show that she is a trained esthetician and that she buys the Botox from an online source. She also said the use of Botox is becoming common in children’s beauty pageants — something that pageant officials deny.
“I’ve never, ever heard of a child getting that. It’s ridiculous,” said Barbara Thomas, a director with California Gold Coast Pageants. She added that Britney has never participated in one of her organization’s pageants.
“What would a child have need of Botox for? They don’t have a wrinkle on their face,” Thomas said. “That woman must be off her rocker.”
That seems to be a popular opinion, both of child health experts and the masses of online bloggers, TV pundits and average parents who have condemned Campbell’s actions.
Dermatologists and child psychology experts said injecting Botox into a child is unhealthy and ill advised, for the child’s physical as well as emotional well-being.
“Medically, who knows what this is going to do to a growing child, and then psychologically, oh my God. It’s disgusting,” said Dr. Laura Davies, a child psychiatrist at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
Botox is the brand name of a purified, diluted form of the botulinum toxin that can be used to paralyze and relax muscles. That can smooth wrinkles in the skin around them. It’s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for cosmetic use in adults 18 and older.
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