The booze talk needs to happen even earlier than parents think — with a sobering new study recommending that children experience Alcohol 101 before they hit double digits.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending that kids know about the dangers of drinking by age 9.
“Alcohol is the substance most frequently used by children and adolescents in the United States, and its use in youth is associated with the leading causes of death and serious injury at this age,” Dr. Lorena Siqueira wrote in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.
Siqueria and her associates conducted surveys of American kids and found that children “think positively about alcohol” as early as their pre-teen years.
“Twenty-one percent of youth acknowledge having had more than a sip of alcohol before 13 years of age, and most (79 percent) have done so by 12th grade,” she wrote.
But parents who are struggling to get through to their angsty youngsters should know: 80 percent of teens point to their parents as the “biggest influence on their decision whether to drink,” according to the study.