The effects of alcohol on young children are not the same as they are on adults. While alcohol misuse can present health risks and cause careless behavior in all age groups, it is even more dangerous for young children.

                                               

In certain households alcohol drinking is accepted as a normal adult behavior.  In such a household, when a child asks for a sip from the father’s wine glass, what’s a conscientious parent to do?

Parents who introduce small sips of alcohol to their young children from time to time mistakenly reason that the children are better off learning how to drink in moderation at home. But a growing body of research shows that the approach where young children are given a sip of alcohol has no protective effect. In fact, even allowing tiny sips may send wrong messages to impressionable minds.

There is no doubt that alcohol is damaging to the developing brain.  The long-term effects of alcohol may include impairments in memory, learning and decision-making, risks that remains high until the brain is fully developed at the age of 24. Given the potential harms related to underage drinking, there is no reason for parents to allow children to try alcohol before their teen years, not “even the occasional sip,” says Dr. Jurgen Rehm, a scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto who researches strategies to reduce alcohol-related harms.

Parents can play a vital role in their children’s attitudes about alcohol by they themselves modeling moderate drinking habits, and communicating their values and expectations about alcohol use to the children. Talking to young children openly and honestly about drinking, and its consequences is important. And delaying the age at which they take their first drink lowers their risk of becoming problem drinkers later in life. So the next time your young son asks, “Can I have sip, Dad?” simply say, “No.”