When should you let your children drink?
One in six parents in the UK allow their children to drink alcohol by age 14, according to new research from the Millennium Cohort Study. However despite the perceived wisdom that giving your children alcohol helps them to develop a healthy relationship with it, there's no strong evidence that this is true. So should we be allowing youngsters a glass of something with their Christmas dinner?
This morning we were joined by Dr Richard Piper from Alcohol Concern and and mother of four Shona Sibary who debated the issue on this morning's show.
Shona - who has four children aged 8, 15, 17 and 19 - says she has given her children alcohol on occasion as teenagers, and believes it's importnat to edcate your children in how to drink responsibly by letting them try alcohol at a young age. However Dr Richard Piper is keen to stress that advice from the Chief Medical Officer recommends an alcohol-free childhood, at the very least up to the age of 15.
The Millennium Cohort Study is following 19,517 young people born across the UK in 2000-01, building a uniquely detailed portrait of the children of the new century. The study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and a consortium of government departments, and managed by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the UCL Institute of Education.
Watch the full debate above.
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