It sounds like the most civilised way to ensure your children grow up with a sensible attitude to alcohol: allowing them a few sips under the watchful eyes of their parents. After all – the theory goes – that’s what they do in France, where binge drinking has traditionally been less of a problem. But according to the New York Times, this cornerstone of liberal parenting is slowly being sloshed away, with an increasing number of studies showing it can lead to earlier drinking.
They include research conducted in 2015, which found children being given “sips” of alcohol by their parents were more likely to have had full drinks, or got drunk, three years later. A professor who led a 2014 study looking at 452 children in the US said: “Child-sipping is related to early initiation of drinking … Parents should not be providing alcohol to their kids.”
It’s not the first time doctors have sounded a warning on this issue. In 2009 the government’s then chief medical officer was unequivocal, calling the idea of giving children watered-down alcohol a “middle-class obsession” and insisting that childhood should be alcohol-free. But if children were going to drink, the advice continued, then it should be under parental supervision.
Professor Harry Sumnall from the centre for public health at Liverpool John Moore’s University says the evidence is mixed. “Parents want to be the ones to introduce their children to alcohol, they realise it is an important life stage and want to be the ones to frame and shape it. For instance, I remember going to my dad’s rugby club and being bought a shandy.”
Sumnall says that while some research shows this can lead to problems, other studies suggest it is parents buying alcohol for their children and then not supervising its consumption that is more closely associated with later problems.
Establishing rules with children can be helpful, says Sumnall, but he is less sure that offering watered-down wine can prevent binge drinking further down the line in the face of societal influences such as advertising and alcohol pricing.
He says there is one thing that many parents forget: “Children learn about alcohol from their parents. So it’s important for parents to think about their own use.”
