The human body is complex and the modern medical techniques used to keep it in working order are so sophisticated that they often seem miraculous. Those techniques are also extremely fucking gross, which is why we simplify our disgusting organs into cute little symbols of love and abstract the horrors of surgery into network TV cadaver cakes and children’s boardgames about just how easy it is to accidentally kill someone undergoing an operation.
Following in this grand tradition of trying to de-nastify the gnarly stuff surgeons do to us, a doctor and mom who goes by The Breakfasteur on YouTube has been showing her son how to perform complicated procedures by using Play-Doh body parts.
The Breakfasteur’s recent video of a Play-Doh cesarean has been generating a lot of interest, and for good reason. The description explains that the video series’ ever present surgical assistant had just turned four and, to mark the occasion, his mom showed him how to deliver a baby via C-section using lumps of dough. A pair of hands that make Doogie Howser’s seem gnarled and old in comparison enter the frame while a voice reminds the child doctor to pinch the Play-Doh stomach to “make sure the anesthesia worked.” The kid then makes “a transverse incision,” pulls apart layers of muscles with pudgy little fingers, and giggles with joy as a baby Spider-Man doll is born. Of course, this isn’t just fun and games. The placenta must also be delivered next, and it is.
This video is fascinating, but there are so many other wonderful Play-Doh operations to discover. It’s equally wholesome and horrifying to watch The Breakfasteur teach her son how to, say, do hernia surgery, remove a thyroid or a brain tumor, and perform “coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.”
This four-year old is learning a tremendous amount about how the human body functions, which should give him a big head start if he decides to formally enter the world of medicine at, like, 12 or 13 years old. That’s a great advantage to give a kid, but we can’t help but worry that he’s likely to be disappointed when it comes time to bring his skills into practice. Play-Doh lessons are great and all, but—aside from the disgust he shows when popping simulated cysts—nothing can truly prepare the fledgling doctor for the experience of trying to fix a violently bleeding, maybe-even-screaming-in-terror patient like the real thing.
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18 Comments
Are you sure you didn’t mix up Hernia repair with giving birth?
kinda sure, baby boy. but y’know what, go on producing words and colours.
my most profound greif.
This is what early education should be. Not learning shapes, colors and how to raise your hands for 8 months.
at the most profound of human potential, possibly. The problem is that kids need the place and space to play, not work. Shapes, colors, and hands are how we say ‘hello’ for the rest of our lives.
That is the most horrible, gruesome, disgusting, PTSD-inducing thing on the whole internet, right after The Guardian’s cooking recipes.
ah, yes and no. Gotta live in the world you live. personally? I’d reject the scientist that’s speaking and work wit the mother. but that’s not the person. that’s not world. that’s not reality en verdad.
Maybe I’m just a hater, but something about this just isn’t sitting right with me. I generally don’t like any YouTube videos that include kids…although I suppose it’s just their voice here.Maybe it’s the whole humblebrag-ishness of it. I get it, your kids are learning to do a c-section, while mine are figuring out another pointless way to spend v-bucks in fortnite (Seriously, the skins add nothing to gameplay. I just don’t get it?). Anyway, I will not be searching any further for these.
Yeah, I think you’re alone on Hater Island. I don’t sense any sort of “humblebrag-ishness” in these videos. A mom is simply teaching her child about her job in an easy and fun way. The nice thing about uploading these to YouTube is that it might pique the interest of other kids in learning how the human body works. Early education (particularly in the US) is woefully sub-par and this is a great example of a parent taking the time to try and compensate for that. It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, a teacher, an accountant, or a stay-at-home parent. Anyone can find ways to make learning in the home more fun.
beautiful schaughnwulph. Thank you for sharing your mind.
I get squeamish just hearing about medical procedures, but the few times I’ve needed surgeries I’ve had to listen to the doctor go through how it all works. Every time, I wanted to pass out. Something like these videos would be a much better option. It doesn’t make me feel ill and it simplifies things to a point where I totally understand what’s happening.
I take issue with attempts by parents to influence their kids into following in their footsteps. It feels manipulative.
Parents are expected to take steps to channel their kids. If you don’t do it then the state will. S’only manipulative if you say “doctor” and they say “painter”.
I guess I don’t necessarily see it that way, but I at least understand your point. It mainly just seems like a much more advanced version of the ol’ playdoh drill-and-fill kit, and something I would have loved as a kid. I enjoyed any chance to feel like I could experience my parents’ jobs; my mom would take me to the newspaper she worked at sometimes and show me what was going on behind the scenes, and I’d make my own.
Obviously it’s a very different dynamic when it’s a parent with this background and money/time to produce this, sure, but for the most part I see it as kind of harmless especially as the kid’s face isn’t appearing here. But I feel weird about children on youtube, too.
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. My mom was a pharmaceutical rep; and she used to let (i.e. make) me carry her samples from the car up to our condo. Many of those samples were Today Sponges (think like 500 per box). People on the elevator either thought I was the shit, or way too confident for my dorky/pimply demeanor.*That said, I don’t mind that this mom is doing this, at least not in a vacuum. By itself it’s pretty cool… I just don’t like the performative parenting aspect of throwing it up on YouTube.*Sponges were way better than Robitussin samples. Those fuckers weighed a shit-ton.
my dad was a coal miner (high grade coke), so I guess, like, digging in the sand? hah.
Modelling play on youtube is not necessarily an issue. The mind of a child or unsentient being can only really see colour and shape, so to them the content won’t make a difference.
yeah, I mean really, why post on youtube? You wanna channel future microneurosurgeons, then do that without the rest of us (they really don’t need the rest of us). When I was 4? hah. It was all blue and red and purple, push knead teh colours together and make play-do. that’s the right job for a 4 year old.
In terms of what you think, maybe it’s the framing of the play, F.Y.
These are utterly fascinating and entertaining! Love that this mom is sharing this with her son, who seems just as fascinated. (and to the bizarre complaints of “parents exploiting children!” and “parents forcing their children to follow in their footsteps!” you must have been watching different videos than I was. Wow.)
I know. This seems like a great mom to me. She’s doing a fascinating activity with her toddler and encouraging his involvement and curiosity. I seriously doubt that she’s trying to mold this four-year-old into a surgeon, or whatever.As for the performative aspect… I find this a lot less unseemly than the parents that post glamour shots of their young children on Instagram to soak up the likes.