Family Defends 'Hot Saucing' Kids

Aug. 30, 2004 -- The mere threat of "hot saucing" served as a practical form of discipline in the Butler home for many years.

Melanie Butler was once given a drop of hot sauce on her tongue by her mother when she misbehaved as a child, and the memory of it stuck with her. Butler said the threat of hot sauce alone encouraged her to behave after the incident.

"I was between the age of 7 and … I don't remember the exact age, but I had lied about something," she said.

Butler says she would consider hot saucing, as a last resort, with her 3 1/2- year-old daughter once she is old enough to receive that kind of punishment.

When Good Morning America first covered the topic of hot saucing last week, the response to the practice was largely negative.

In a non-scientific ballot on ABCNEWS.com last week, 35 percent of voters said they feel hot saucing is an acceptable form of discipline. Sixty-five percent of voters said the practice of hot saucing was not. More than 8,000 votes were cast in the online ballot.

Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block, says hot saucing could pose risks that many parents would not consider.

"We don't even do it for convicted felons to inflict pain upon them. Why would we do it to a small child?" he said.

Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair on the popular 1980s TV series Facts of Life, is an advocate and practitioner of hot saucing. Whelchel, the author of Creative Correction: Extraordinary Ideas for Everyday Discipline, says the practice worked for her children when other disciplinary actions did not.

"There is a place for the parent to be the parent and a child to be the child," Whelchel said. "There's a place to draw the lines and to take that responsibility. If a child crosses over that line, then to say, you know, sometimes it takes more than, 'Don't do that, I told you not to do that, if you do that again you are going to sit down for 15 minutes.'"