Teeny tiny treatments

We've all heard of a mini-manicure, but what about a pre-teen pedicure? Whilst painting your little one's fingernails can be a fun pampering treat and a chance to spend some quality time together, we're a little apprehensive about placing too much emphasis on physical appearance at a young age.

So, what exactly are kids spas, and what treatments do they offer?

Kiddie spa-ing is clearly big business, with the Asian Spa Awards introducing a "Best Children's Spa Menu of the Year" category in 2009, which was won by Ice Cream Spa on Conrad Rangali Island in the Maldives. Ice Cream offers a "princess me" facial, body scrubs, massages, nail art, temporary tattoos and even a "I'm a boy" facial for the little chaps.

Dimples Kids Spa in Brooklyn, New York, offers a range of hair, nail and face treatments for children, and some clients are apparently as worryingly young as 20 months old! Services include nail art, baby mani-pedis, chocolate facials, make-up application and hair braiding.

KeyLime Cove in Gurnee, USA boasts the Enchanted Lagoon kids spa, which not only offers styling to let your little ones indulge in fantasies of rockstardom, mermaid transformations or princess perfection, but also gives the kids a chance to develop their own lotions, sugar scrubs and lip glosses in colours and flavours of their choosing.

Aqua Sculpture in London offers a varied menu designed for children and teens from age 6 and up. The menu is carefully compiled to offer help for teens with problem skin, as well as mini-manicures and pedicures for the younger ones. Prices start from a very reasonable £12 for a mini-manicure.

There's something fun and lighthearted about giving your children a chance to play princesses and feel grown up for an hour or two, and we don't really see the harm in pink fingernails or a rockstar hairdo. However, it's still important to make sure our children aren't exposed to all the critical image-orientated afflictions of the adult world. We think childhood is short enough, and should be embraced rather than abandoned. Adulthood, and facials, can wait. Now, where's the ice cream?!