Mom Gives Botox to 8-Year-Old Daughter: How Young Is Too Young?

May 12, 2011 -- Botox injections and leg waxing on an 8-year-old girl, all in the name of beauty pageant success, all done by her own mom.

It sounds too unreal to be true, like a storyline straight out of "When Stage Moms Go Bad."

It's not.

It's real life for an 8-year-old California girl.

We spoke with the girl, Britney, and her mom, Kerry, to learn exactly why they turned to Botox, and exactly how young is too young when it comes to using medical treatments for the sake of beauty.

Kerry, who asked that her family's last name not be used, told "Good Morning America's" Lara Spencer that it was actually her daughter, Britney, who wanted to try Botox, a beauty treatment more normally requested by aging women than growing girls.

"We were getting into the pageants," Kerry recalled. "I knew she was complaining about her face, having wrinkles, and things like that. When I brought it up to Britney she was all for it."

So Kerry, a San Francisco, Calif.-based, part-time aesthetician and no stranger to Botox herself, having done the treatment on her own face, began injecting her daughter with the anti-wrinkle solution.

"She had watched me do it before," said Kerry. "So when we first did it she was fine with it."

Kerry typically administers the Botox to Britney through a total of five shots, in three different locations on her face.

But can Botox really make a difference on a young girl who has not even had time in her life to develop the "worry" lines or age creases Botox is typically sought out to erase?

"The few times that we did it, it would lessen the lines," said Kerry. "They wouldn't completely disappear, she's a kid. And we don't do so much to where it's going to make a big difference."

But it's enough of a difference for Kerry and Britney to continue on with the treatments, despite the pain.

"It hurts sometimes," said Britney. "It makes me nervous. But I get used to it."

While Britney thinks about the physical pain, critics in the medical community contend that administering Botox this early raises another type of more lasting pain: the potential for permanent psychological damage.

"Well, when I first heard this story, I think my initial reaction is to be a little bit in disbelief, and a little bit horrified," said Dr. Charles Sophy, a psychiatrist. "There's a lot of psychological damage that can be caused."