Parents should have had a booze talk with two-year-old Cheng Cheng. Many of us have heard of him, the world's youngest alcoholic, known as ‘Little Winebibber’, who shuns milk for alcohol in China. He first tasted wine on his father’s chopsticks aged just 10 months and now downs bottles of wine and beer in minutes – faster than his parents. Cheng Cheng's taste for alcohol is extreme yet not uncommon: underage drinking is literally everywhere.
Have the booze talk with kids at age 9
Every day in the United States, more than 4,750 kids under age 16 have their first full drink of alcohol and the average age at which young people ages 12 to 17 begin to drink is 13 years old. Underage drinking is estimated to account for between 11% and 20% of the
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Most of us have done it: getting drunk as adolescents. Some blackout, others are immune to hangovers. Regardless of the repercussions, alcohol poses a far greater threat to children than many parents or peers care to admit.
Beyond hangovers
A report by the American Academy of Pediatrics says alcohol is the substance most frequently abused by children and teens. But the true picture is much darker: drinks are linked to the leading causes of death and serious injury, such as accidents, homicides and suicides.
"Given their lack of experience with alcohol and smaller bodies, children and adolescents can have serious consequences -- including death -- with their first episode of binge drinking," said Dr. Lorena Siqueira, co-author of the report and a member of the AAP committee on substance abuse.
When children start to think positively about alcohol
Researchers recommend talking with children about drinking before they take their first sip - and before they turn 10. Being exposed to ads for alcoholic beverages, watching role models use alcohol, and even see the adults around them drinking results in kids starting to think positively about booze between 9 and