Critics lambaste kids book on plastic surgery
Last Updated: Saturday, April 19, 2008 | 3:57 PM ET
CBC News
A new picture book for children about plastic surgery is causing an uproar in the United States.
Florida plastic surgeon Michael Salzhauer has written My Beautiful Mommy aimed at four- to seven-year-olds to help them understand what's happening when their mother goes under the knife.
Salzhauer, a father of four, said many of his patients were coming in to fix their sagging breasts and tummies after having kids and were concerned about how to tell their children.
"This is for a specific consumer at a specific time in their life that is going to turn their household upside down for a couple of weeks," he told Reuters.
Salzhauer said thousands of women are opting for the procedures and are in dire need of a help book like his.
In one scenario, a mother tells her daughter that she wants nose surgery to make her look prettier.
A large portion of the 1.8 million annual plastic surgery procedures in the U.S. are for breast augmentation and liposuction, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Some of Salzhauer's colleagues do not support the book.
Stephen Greenberg, a New York plastic surgeon, said elementary school children should not be exposed to plastic surgery at all. He said it might affect their self-esteem.
And some feminist groups said the book teaches children the wrong thing — that they should have surgery to fix what they don't like about their physical attributes.
"Do we really have to teach our kids that we need it to 'feel better' and be 'beautiful'?" asked Jessica Valenti, editor of the website feministing.com.
Salzhauer insisted he's not glamourizing plastic surgery and emphasized that My Beautiful Mommy shouldn't be a bedtime book to be read by parents to children, either.
