Kids can sense why mom drinks beer

PHILADELPHIA, June 30 (UPI) -- A child's response to the smell of alcoholic beverages is related to his or her mother's reasons for drinking, U.S. researchers said.

In the study, published in the journal Alcohol, 145 children between the ages of 5 and 8 years were presented with seven pairs of odors. One of the odors was always beer; the others were bubblegum, chocolate, cola, coffee, green tea, pyridine -- the smell of rotten eggs and cigarette smoke.

Thirty-five percent of the mothers were classified as "escape drinkers": to help relax, when tense and nervous, in a bad mood, to forget worries or to help forget everything.

When asked to smell both the odor of beer and an unpleasant odor and then indicate which they liked better, children of mothers classified as escape drinkers were more likely than children of "non-escape" drinkers to select the unpleasant odor over beer, said lead author Julie Mennella of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, an independent non-profit research center in Philadelphia.

"Children's responses to odors provide us with a window into their emotions," Mennella said in a statement. "When given a choice between beer and pyridine -- children of mothers who drink to relieve tension and worry choose pyridine as smelling better. That's pretty powerful."