Update: Daughter taken away from Botox mom
UPDATE 8:52 EST: Media outlets are now reporting that the mother may not be who she says she was.
“The San Francisco Chronicle, citing sources of its own, says the mother’s name is not Kerry Campbell and she does not live in San Francisco, as originally claimed on ABC’s Good Morning America. City child-welfare officials were inundated with irate calls and an investigation was begun.”
ABC News is reporting that the San Francisco Human Services Department took the 8-year-old girl away from her mother, who admitted on TV to injecting her daughter with Botox in the past.
From the San Francisco Examiner:
“ABC reports that Britney Campbell was taken out of the home during the weekend. Child Protective Services is investigating the mother, Kerry Campbell. Reportedly, the girl is “doing well,” according to ABC News.”
“Kerry Campbell made the news last week after she appeared on the television shows “Good Morning America” and “Inside Edition.” Campbell, who enters her daughter in beauty pageants, maintains that what she does is safe and that other members of the pageant community treat their children with Botox, too.”
“Not long after she appeared on TV, San Francisco officials began an investigation into the mother. Campbell reportedly lives in San Francisco.”
I feel terrible for this little girl. The ABC reporter just kept reiterating how well the little was doing but how well can a child do after being taken away from the her family.
I completely agree you shouldn’t give your kid Botox, but I just feel bad for this child. It’s just a bad situation all the way around.
What do you think? Should the child have been taken away? If there’s not a law against it do they have the right to take the child away? Is it more harmful to child to take her away than to tell the mother to cease and desist?
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94 comments Add your comment
shaggy
May 16th, 2011
1:25 pm
Gee, I didn’t see that coming. I was positive that this woman was doing such a fine job of “career development” with that little girl that she would soon have her own botox ads in “Better Homes & Daughters”.
“Officer, it was just a little shot every now and then…for her own good. Wait, where are you going with my little money..er uhhh, pagent girl?”
fred
May 16th, 2011
1:27 pm
Feel bad for the girl but I am glad she was removed. I hope she has family that can take her in. State care can really mess a kid up.
Techmom
May 16th, 2011
1:34 pm
Maybe this will be a wake-up call for the mom to figure out that she’s being an idiot. I hope the judge tells her she cannot enter her in any more pageants for some time frame.
Carly
May 16th, 2011
1:35 pm
This woman does not deserve to be called mother………hopefully this little girl will
do better with a foster home beign taught about “normal” family living.
bobby
May 16th, 2011
1:39 pm
I have seen these types of beauty pageant mothers before so it does not surprise me.She needs to have a botox needle pointed u. in her chair cushion every times she sits down.
bobby
May 16th, 2011
1:40 pm
make that pointed up.
Debra
May 16th, 2011
1:42 pm
VERY glad that child was removed. What is she teaching her child? Girls have enough body image issues without a Mom fixing her “wrinkles” at an early age. Hope this lets the Mom know this isn’t right. If others are doing it, beware….
free
May 16th, 2011
1:50 pm
a cease and desist order (as well as naming the person who is giving her the drug) but removing the child from the home may be a bit much. foster care is scary.
sheri
May 16th, 2011
1:52 pm
Where is the dad while this whole thing is going on? It would be nice if he was around! Sounds to me like this little girl needs a lot of therapy!
rizzo
May 16th, 2011
1:55 pm
I agree that in this situation the child should have been temporarily removed, however if a state can remove a child simply because “it’s in the best interest of the child” and not because a crime was committed, then there’s no reason the state shouldn’t be removing obese children from families that eat at McDonalds, or rude children because their parents didn’t teach them “please and thank you”. Like it or not, states do not and should not have joint custody of our children.
mom2alex&max
May 16th, 2011
1:59 pm
I’m kinda with free on this one. I wish they would have prosecuted whoever was providing that Botox.
MomsRule
May 16th, 2011
1:59 pm
While I do not agree with botox injecting in children (short of true medical necessity, if it exists)…if it isn’t illegal then the child should not have been taken from her Mother. Is there other evidence of abuse or neglect? If not, then I don’t think putting the child in foster care is the answer.
shawn
May 16th, 2011
2:05 pm
Why not just leave her with her mom and monitor the mother. Who gave the mom Botox?
jules
May 16th, 2011
2:11 pm
I agree with Rizzo and MomsRule. This child will probably be far more damaged by being placed in foster care than than anything her mom was doing. If the only problem was that the mother needed some perspective with regards to pageants, then a great disservice has been done to the little girl.
mom2alex&max
May 16th, 2011
2:14 pm
For those of you that asked about the dad: “Britney’s father, a research scientist, died four years ago at the age of 83, according to The Sun.” The girl is 8 now, was for when her dad died, which means that dad was 79 when she was born.
So it looks like momma is not only an idiot, she’s also a gold digger.
Like I said when Theresa 1st posted about this moron: there aren’t enough WTFs in the world to really comment on this topic.
Mom Gives 8 yr old Botox ***UPDATE - Page 6 - In the News - MilitarySOS.com
May 16th, 2011
2:19 pm
[...] i'm not sure if someone already posted this, but apparently the girl has been removed from her mom's custody by CPS Update: Daughter taken away from Botox mom | Momania: A Blog for Busy Moms [...]
Lori
May 16th, 2011
2:21 pm
Beauty pageants for little girls should be outlawed!! Botox for anyone under 18 should be outlawed. The person providing her with the botox should lose their license!! This poor girl should be able to go home, but with some close monitoring from DEFACS as well as some parenting classes for the mom.
Elder Flower Child
May 16th, 2011
2:27 pm
I hate what these parents do to these little girls for the love of the crowns and fleeting glory they get from these pagents. But I also believe in freedom, and think that putting that child in foster care is more damaging than leaving her with her mother. We have far too many children in the foster care system as it is, and few of them are in ideal siturations. The nanny state has gone too far.
KZGuy
May 16th, 2011
2:32 pm
Don’t even call this woman a mother. Somebody ought to slap her upside the head.
missy
May 16th, 2011
2:33 pm
I find it appalling that people think this mother should retain custody of this child! Hello!! She didn’t think what she was doing was wrong! Injecting poision into a child’s skin is child abuse! The state did the right thing by removing her from the home. Hopefully, she will have relatives that will take her in. Her mother needs a psychological evaluation and state-mandated parenting classes! Where is the doctor who is prescribing botox?? He/She needs to investigated too!!
Chris Florky
May 16th, 2011
2:34 pm
I wish that all of these people who sponsor & run pageants would leave it to those contestants who are16 or older. It is so sad to know that the message these little girls are being given is that everything in their lives will depend on how they look. I think the child needs to be left with her mother, but her mother needs some mandatory therapy – and fast!
AtlantaMom
May 16th, 2011
2:35 pm
I think taking her from the home she knows is a big mistake unless there were other instances of “abuse”. I agree that giving her child botox is utterly ridiculous and could hurt her self-esteem and send so many wrong messages, but get the mother some HELP and let the child stay with mom if this is the only red flag. Honestly, I think child pagents should be out-lawed. They are terrible for the kids and the parents lose their minds over this!
Oscar Greasemanelli
May 16th, 2011
2:43 pm
What I want to know is, did the girl win many pageants?
Inquiring minds want to know!
I’m out of here. Time for a bone-dry martini! Waddle-doodle!
Techmom
May 16th, 2011
2:48 pm
The mom is an esthetician and is getting the Botox from a ‘doctor’ source that she won’t name.
MomsRule
May 16th, 2011
2:52 pm
I’ll bet the girl is doing “very well” in child protective services. I’d also wager a bet that the care she is receiving from the state is better than the norm due to all of the media attention surrounding her.
Christina
May 16th, 2011
2:56 pm
The little girls dad died four years ago so all she has is her mom…well not even that but ya know
zorlander
May 16th, 2011
2:56 pm
I agree with Rizzo and MomsRule. Having brothers that were in foster care, I can tell you that far worst things than botox go on. Im sorry for the little girl and that the state now thinks it has joint custody of our children [shiver]…
Techmom
May 16th, 2011
3:02 pm
So maybe this is a naive question but why are foster homes so bad? Isn’t the investigation process pretty thorough? What’s the motivation to do it if you don’t honestly want to help kids (is there really that much money involved)?
Grace mom
May 16th, 2011
3:07 pm
Botox should not have been given to the child. That said, how many parents make mistakes? Should the little girl have to leave her home and the mother she loves because mom is a dolt?
Tomahawk Holmes
May 16th, 2011
3:16 pm
She’ll probably be on the 16 and Pregnant MTV show in a couple year too
Monica
May 16th, 2011
3:20 pm
We don’t know the full story; the Botox injections may have been the tip of the iceburg.
Personally, I think all parents who enter their babies in these pageants should be shot… not really, but I hate pageants!
Wayne
May 16th, 2011
3:23 pm
@Techmom: yup, from my experience, it’s all about the Benjamins. We adopted from DCF and can tell you that the social workers were for the most part great, but the homes themselves were just about the money. Take a coupla kids in, stick’em in a room and get $2K a month? Plus, the birthday and Christmas money? Yeah, it could be about the money.
By no means am I saying it’s all foster homes, but seen enough of it to wonder.
bikerchick1959
May 16th, 2011
3:24 pm
This little girl is already beautiful. It’s sad that her mother feels that she isn’t and is giving her botox. Beauty pagents do more harm than good and I don’t think children should be involved. The mother is a nutcase and needs some major therapy. Thank goodness somebody had the mind to remove this child for her own safety. There is no telling what the mother would have done, give her silicon injections? Possibly.
Malika
May 16th, 2011
3:31 pm
I agree with all of the posters that say that removing the girl was an extreme step. Because of a mix up, I ended up in a group home when I was a child and despite my mother being not being very stable growing up, I’d still much rather be at home than to ever live in that sort of environment. The mother should be ordered counseling and ordered to either not be allowed to enter her daughter in pageants or only do it under strict supervision. But unless the child is being beaten, molested, threatened, neglected or starved to remove her is too extreme.
And I agree with Rizzo. We many not agree with decisions some parents make, but do we really want the State to be able to take children whenever someone else doesn’t like our parenting style? There are times my son goes to bed without dinner, should CPS come get him also?
Madea
May 16th, 2011
3:32 pm
WAY too much trauma for that poor little girl to be taken away from her only parent. Yes, the mother is an idiot, but some court-ordered family counseling and just the threat of losing her daughter should have been enough. Again, the child is the one who suffers most. Think about who should pay the price – and it’s not the little girl who is hurting most over this, I’ll guarantee you that! Let her go home.
Madea
May 16th, 2011
3:33 pm
I mean to say above that it is not the MOTHER who is hurting most over this decision. Sorry. This is ridiculous. Cruel!
Malika
May 16th, 2011
3:46 pm
Typo- We MAY not agree with…
JJ
May 16th, 2011
3:47 pm
@GraceMom – Deliberatly injecting botox into an 8 year old is NOT a “parental mistake” that we have all made…..that woman KNEW what she was doing. She hit the tv circuit and made the rounds, boasting what she had done. THAT in my opinion, is NOT a parental mistake.
Yes we have all made mistakes, who among us is the perfect parent? However, this woman did not make a mistake by injecting this poison into her child’s skin. She knew EXACTLY what she was doing, and WHY……
AreYouKidding?
May 16th, 2011
3:53 pm
So, when are we going to take kids away from parents who feed them fast-food EVERY night for dinner? Yes, it was a stupid thing to do. I’m sure she was not the only one! A better solution would be to prohibit the child from being in those pageants. What jokes they are!!! The kids don’t even look like themselves, and it’s for the parents anyway!
joe
May 16th, 2011
3:55 pm
Is anyone really surprised by where this took place? After all, SF, home of the free love movement, nixing circumcision, mandatory service fees at restaurants and nixing happy meals at mickey D’s has surpassed LA as the loony capital of Cali. Good move by protective services officials.
Christina
May 16th, 2011
3:57 pm
Exactly what “mom” wanted…more free publicity!
Peachy
May 16th, 2011
3:57 pm
The little girl is the victim entirely here. I feel so bad for her. How do you think your child would feel if they were removed from your home? YES, the mother was VERY wrong. I don’t agree one bit with her giving the child botox, but removing the child from the home… I just don’t know. I just look at this and compare it to the case where the little girl had plastic surgery on her ears because they were too big. Really, how is this any different? Botox isn’t illegal. Does it really warrant removing the child from the home?
abc
May 16th, 2011
3:58 pm
People’s value judgements are moot. The mom didn’t do anything illegal; there aren’t anything more than medical suggestions as to the risk to children. Deciding for yourself that something is abuse doesn’t make it so. I suppose that children should be taken away from those who display the Confederate Battle Flag at their house or on their pickup truck because of the psychological harm it could do, endorsing multi-cultural insensitivity — or allow their children to watch some TV shows — or have obese children — or smoke, etc. etc.
I don’t think the state had the approved justificaton to actually seize the child in this case. I smell a big lawsuit.
Lynn
May 16th, 2011
4:08 pm
I like others don’t think this child should have been removed. I do think the doctor should lose his license and that the mother should have some parenting classes as well as not being allowed to enter future pagents. If we go around yanking kids from homes where parents don’t do everything right, most of us would lose our kids and the foster system would be worse than it already is. This child will suffer her entire life for what her mother and the DFC did…sad
Br00kse
May 16th, 2011
4:08 pm
I think it is a terrible thing the mother was doing to her daughter. I also think her mother did it out of ignorance or because she thought the child could end up making her money. But I think they may have been other alternatives other than removing her from her mother. This little girl will not know what to think.
Villa Rica DAWG
May 16th, 2011
4:09 pm
WOW!!!
I can’t believe how many folks are celebrating a state agency ripping a child out of her home and away from her mother over something that is not illegal — although I think it maybe should be.
The state has crossed the line on this, guys. We can’t, as a society, infringe upon people’s personal libertys and take their children from them everytime they do something that we don’t agree with. I think the comment about feeding children mcdonalds or allowing them to smoke cigarettes as a teenager is much more dangerous and irresponsible than botox injections.
I still think she is doing her kid wrong by allowing her to get botox injections at 8 years old. That said, it’s not grounds for taking someone’s kid!
She She
May 16th, 2011
4:15 pm
I believe an 8 year old should NOT be getting botox no matter what other Moms may or may not be doing in the beauty queen world. What kind of values are you teaching/instilling in a child (especially a girl) about beauty/looks? (As long as your pretty/wrinkle free that’s all that matters in life – OMG!!!) Furthermore I believe that a cease and desist order should have been given to the mother and that both (mother and daughter) enroll in some type of therapy and parental classes.
Snoop
May 16th, 2011
4:20 pm
What Madea said.
homeschooler
May 16th, 2011
4:27 pm
@ abc…how do you know the mom did not do anything illegal? I am a child protective services worker and work very closely with the police. One of the criteria for a child cruelty charge is causing pain to a child. The child admitted that this hurt. Did you see the pictures of her during and after the procedure. She was in extreme and unnecessary pain. I can tell you that the detectives I work with would be trying very hard to bring charges against this mother.
Aside from that, you don’t have to commit a crime to have your kids removed. Very few people are arrested for emotionally abusing their children but children are removed. Very few people are arrested when they test positive for cocaine and meth but their children can be removed.
I suspect the state is just being careful because of all the publicity. This goes both ways. They would not have taken her without justification but they were getting hounded with calls from people demanding that they do something.
My guess is that the child will be home within a couple of weeks with some strict guidelines for the mother to follow.
Foster care is never a great answer but sometimes it is the only answer. And, in Georgia, foster parents get about 14 dollars a day per child so..no one is getting rich fostering.
Oh, and by the way…it is abusive to withhold food as punishment. So, to the mother who sends her child to bed without supper, please stop…and find another form of discipline.
BJM
May 16th, 2011
4:35 pm
Shaggy, couldn’t have said it better!