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Pediatricians suggest alcohol discussions with children start at 9

Between marketing, parental example and shifts in how children see the world as they grow older, teenagers often start drinking earlier than parents expect.

By Stephen Feller

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- In order to warn children of the dangers of drinking, pediatricians are recommending that parents talk to children as young as 9 years old about alcohol consumption.

Discussing alcohol with children under 10 may seem a bit early, however the American Academy of Pediatrics bases their new parental suggestion on surveys showing that as the age many will begin to form positive opinions of alcohol.

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"Positive expectancies are often shaped by alcohol advertising, which is ubiquitous and portrays its use as being a normal part of adolescent and adult social life," researchers wrote in the report, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "As a result, the negative expectancies usually present in children are slowly replaced by positive expectancies as they enter adolescence."

According to the report, 21 percent of youth acknowledge having had more than a sip of alcohol before they turned 13, and 79 percent said have had at least a sip by 12th grade.

The influence of parents is significant for all children, be it seeing their parents drink a glass of wine with dinner or expressing some form of excitement at consuming an alcoholic beverage -- be it at a party or at the end of a rough day at work. Because children also begin to experiment and push boundaries as they enter their teen years, the report focuses on the dangers of binge drinking to this age group.

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Binge drinking generally refers to the consumption of 5 or more drinks in a two-hour period by men or 4 or more drinks in the same time frame by women. These numbers are for adults, and the dangers of binge drinking apply differently to individuals because of how quickly their bodies metabolize alcohol, raising the stakes for children who binge.

While 22.9 percent of all Americans 12 years or older reported binge drinking in the 30 days before being surveyed, 14.2 percent of people 12 to 20 reported binge drinking in the previous 30 days. Among children, 0.8 percent of 12- and 13-year-olds reported binge drinking, and 4.5 percent of 14- and 15-year-olds reported binge drinking.

Overall, between 36 and 50 percent of high school students drink alcohol and 28 to 60 percent report binge drinking -- nearly two-thirds of those teenagers had done so more than once in the previous 30 days. Additionally, 1 in 10 high school seniors said they'd had 10 or more drinks in a row and 5.6 percent of seniors had had 15 or more in a row.

"Surveys indicate that children start to think positively about alcohol between ages 9 and 13 years," the doctors wrote in the report. "Therefore, it is very important to start talking to children about the dangers of drinking as early as 9 years of age."

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Aside from parents, the report also recommends that pediatricians counsel both parents and children about the dangers of alcohol.

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