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Botox for Baby

Posted by Jen Chaney

Botox: Finally it's doing more for the greater good than keeping Joan Rivers's face from collapsing.

A medical journal revealed this week that a Montreal doctor injected Botox into the nerves of a two-and-a-half-month-old infant who suffered from CHARGE syndrome. The rare condition causes multiple issues, including difficulty swallowing, which can cause the lungs to fill with saliva. The physician administered the Botox over a series of months starting in 2005 as an alternative to a tracheotomy, reportedly the first time such an approach was used. Now the child is three and living a healthy, normal life. Apparently other doctors in Canada have followed suit and are now using Botox to control saliva in more kids with neurological issues. So far, no side effects have been reported.

Like the Viagra case I recently mentioned, this is another example of an "adult" medical treatment that can play a vital role in improving the health of very young children. Sort of ironic. The pill that's supposed to get Granddad laid and the injection that's supposed to make Nana's face smooth enough to keep him interested? They actually serve a higher purpose by improving the quality of life for the youngest among us.

P.S. Botox can paralyze the salivary glands? Huh. So that explains why Priscilla Presley never drools.

Photo: Don Murray/Getty Images 


Posted Mar 20 2008, 09:02 AM
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Comments

 

giggleup said:

Great story!

March 21, 2008 1:22 PM

About Jen Chaney

Jen Chaney is the movies editor and a DVD columnist for washingtonpost.com. Her byline has appeared in The Washington Post, People magazine, USA Today and the Utne Reader as well as various other newspapers around the country. She is the mother of a one-year-old boy, who has not yet learned the word Xanadu. But he will. Trust us, he will.

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