# I just found out my drunk uncles used to give me alcohol **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2003, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884 "2003-12-04T06:12:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vision\_of\_Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/1 "2003-12-04T06:12:44Z")
:rolleyes: I don’t know how true this is but one of them said I got tipsy sometimes (he thought it was funny). I remember only one instance of me being given beer, but I remember only taking one sip and not drinking any more. My question is, if I was maybe 2-4 years old, would it have done any permanent damage to my brain? I’m 20 now and I don’t notice anything wrong with me in that respect but I still wonder. I also remember seeing someone (drunk) giving their toddler son beer before. I think it’s sick. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Insufferable\_Jerk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@That\_Insufferable\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Insufferable_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/2 "2003-12-04T06:41:34Z")
I used to get dosed with cough medicine and I’ll bet you did too. I would imagine that the stuff in cough medicine would be worse for you. On the up side Ben Stiller used to get dosed with acid as a child and he turned out all right… I think. ---
**Author:** ![Vision\_of\_Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/3 "2003-12-04T07:03:10Z")
LOL! @ Ben Stiller comment Cough medicine’s bad for kids? ---
**Author:** ![That\_Insufferable\_Jerk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@That\_Insufferable\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Insufferable_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/4 "2003-12-04T07:27:30Z")
Some of it… [http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm.shtml](http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/5 "2003-12-04T09:08:38Z")
I doubt if you’ll be able to find any real research on this subject: “University applies for government grant to study the effects of booze on 2-year-olds”. Uhhh…maybe not. The other problem is “proving” any damage. Can you ever “prove” that booze as a baby caused you to score 200 points lower on your SATs? If you had identical twins and kept one liquored up as a toddler and the other sober, you might have the beginnings of a feasible study. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about it. Parents used to rub brandy on babies’ mouths to reduce teething pain, and I haven’t heard of that causing any problems. A couple of beers as a toddler are nothing to worry about. (That means over the course of being a toddler, not two beers at one sitting - jeez, why do I even have to explain this? Oh, right…fighting ignorance). (And BTW, a drunk uncle who thinks you getting tipsy as a kid is funny JUST MIGHT be exaggerating the alcohol effects for his own amusement) ---
**Author:** ![Blown\_Injected](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@Blown\_Injected](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blown_Injected)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/6 "2003-12-04T10:58:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pilot141 \* > \*\*(And BTW, a drunk uncle who thinks you getting tipsy as a kid is funny JUST MIGHT be exaggerating the alcohol effects for his own amusement) \*\* That sounds/feels very believeable - as I type on top of lots of bourbon 🙂 I know some parents that have tried the calm the kids down with some alcohol; it did not work, the kids did not like the taste and after about 1/10th of a drink, there was no chance of another dose - but maybe you liked it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/7 "2003-12-04T11:02:23Z")
Not only did my pap give me sips of his beer, he poured the dregs out for the beagle to finish. Yeah, it sounds very “you might be the offspring of generous rednecks if…” ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/8 "2003-12-04T13:38:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pilot141 \* > \*\*I doubt if you’ll be able to find any real research on this subject: > > “University applies for government grant to study the effects of booze on 2-year-olds”. Uhhh…maybe not. \*\* Why not? It seems like a totally reasonable question to answer. Gathering data might not be particularly easy, but I think the reason there does not seem to be much research is that the incidence of chronic alcohol intoxication among toddlers is not high enough to warrant such research. Anyway, I found [this](http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2715.htm), which claims: > [@](#): > > Long-term complications of chronic ethanol abuse in children are not well described in the medical literature. > Complications usually develop over several years. > Because most pediatric patients do not start abusing ethanol until later in their adolescence, they do not present with long-term complications such as liver dysfunction (eg, cirrhosis) and cardiac problems until after they become adults. Note that the above refers also to teenagers, so might not be all that relevent for infants. And also: > [@](#): > > Infants and toddlers have a clinical course significantly different from that of adolescents and adults. Ethanol ingestion and intoxication can lead to a marked hypoglycemic state in infants and young children. Ethanol has a CNS depressant action that can also lead to respiratory depression and hypoxia. Ethanol has a sedative effect, producing general CNS depression, respiratory depression, and often hypoglycemia. Young children often present to the emergency department (ED) after drinking discarded alcoholic beverages left within their reach during and after parties or after ingesting a fluid that contains ethanol. In the older children and adolescents, ethanol intoxication causes CNS depression, leading to respiratory depression. Hypoglycemia is less common in this group. [There’s a seemingly interesting case report](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9475233&dopt=Abstract) listed on Medline, but the full text isn’t available online. It looks like you would have been at risk if: a)You were given, at once, a very large dose of alcohol, potentially causing some of the problems listed above. b)You were given alcohol regularly, in decent quantities, potentially leading to some permanent damage. However, I’m not in any way a doctor, and I couldn’t find anything that addressed neurological consequences of moderate ethanol consumption in toddlers _specifically_. ---
**Author:** ![Indefatigable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9d8465/32.png) [@Indefatigable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indefatigable)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/9 "2003-12-04T14:42:05Z")
There are an awful lot of kids who were allowed to sip foam off of beer when they were little. I was one, and I don’t know why I did it more than once, because it tasted nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/10 "2003-12-04T16:03:59Z")
My grandmother actually gave me watered-down wine when I was teething. She made me Hot Toddies when I was sick. I turned out just fine. Well, maybe that’s a matter for debate, but still, I haven’t noticed any bad effects. Why is it “sick” to give a child alcohol? I’ve heard the French sometimes give their children wine with dinner. Now, getting a child drunk is another matter, but really, what’s _wrong_ with giving a child a little wine, or letting them taste a beer? Is it just a matter of culture? ---
**Author:** ![Jake4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@Jake4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake4)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/11 "2003-12-04T16:31:07Z")
Two words. Drew Barrymore. ---
**Author:** ![5cents](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/46a35a/32.png) [@5cents](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5cents)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/12 "2003-12-04T16:55:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissa \* > **I’ve heard the French sometimes give their children wine with dinner.** Sometimes? The French drink wine like Americans drink milk. A 5 year old drinking wine is perfectly normal. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/13 "2003-12-04T17:34:17Z")
Yes, but I thought that the kids drink water with a few drops of wine for color, not a glass of undiluted wine. A five-year-old only weighs, what, forty pounds? A glass of wine would mess that child up. I just remembered something. Didn’t anyone else get fed hot tea with lemon, honey, and whiskey for bad colds. ---
**Author:** ![Zazie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Zazie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zazie)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/14 "2003-12-04T18:58:38Z")
You guys crack me up! French doper signing in here. I had alcohol as a kid several times, I know I would see my parents drink wine at dinner and ask to try it. I would also try beer if they drank some. It was curiousity, I would have tried whatever they were drinking, just happened to be wine mostly 😉 It would never go beyond one sip, and I thought I was so cool for drinking an adult drink! I turned out fine with no problems with alcohol, I actually am way more responsible than any other person my age I know (in the States). ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/15 "2003-12-04T19:50:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pilot141 \* > \*\*I doubt if you’ll be able to find any real research on this subject: > > “University applies for government grant to study the effects of booze on 2-year-olds”. Uhhh…maybe not. > > \*\* In Soviet Russia, the alcohol researches [You](http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/11/27/002.html). [sub]Sorry, couldn’t resist[/sub]. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/16 "2003-12-04T19:57:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by That Insufferable Jerk… \* > \*\*Some of it… > [http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm.shtml](http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm.shtml) \*\* Screw the DXM. Old school cough syrup used to have codeine in it. I remember, vaguely, a plane trip where I couldn’t stop coughing. It turns out that I was experiencing my first bout with allergies, but my father thought it was a cold. Everytime that I coughed, he poured more of the Vicks into me. I had to be carried off the airplane. ---
**Author:** ![bunyip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@bunyip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bunyip)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/17 "2003-12-04T20:29:38Z")
In the 19th century children might find themselves doped up with Laudanum (alcohol and opium). Perhaps in the form of “Atkinson’s Royal Infants Preservative”, or opium and treacle “Godfrey’s cordial” [http://www.historyhouse.com/in\_history/caffeine/](http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/caffeine/) ---
**Author:** ![hroeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@hroeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hroeder)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/18 "2003-12-04T21:17:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bunyip \* > \*\*In the 19th century children might find themselves doped up with Laudanum (alcohol and opium). > \*\* I’m not yet 60 and my grandparents had Laudanum in the medicine chest along with paragoric (sp?). ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/19 "2003-12-04T21:32:15Z")
It’s not just the French and wine. When I was a baby/toddler, travelling with my parents in Europe in the 1960s, my mother often found it difficult tofind milk for me. The Germans were _far_ more likely to try to push beer on me than the French were to push wine. Back then, the water wasn’t safe for travellers, and many Germans believed drinking cold milk was downright unhealthy. Many still believe it should be avoided today, though brightly packaged commercial cold milk/yogurt based drinks are mysteriously okay.) Neither of my parents, AFAIK, had ever had so much as a sip back then, so I spent most of the day thirsty when we weren’t in a hotel. As a physician, I can tell you that a dehydrated child can go critical remarkably fast - one day of diarrhea or some vomiting can put them over the edge, so despite the fact that beer is not generally a good way to get water, my parents’ well meaning protection could have potentially been much more dangerous than the beer. Dad, also a doc, should’ve known that (or at least looked harder for water - but he was of the ‘children are simply inconvenient’ school of parenting). I realize that you weren’t facing dehydration, and the situation in most of Europe is very different than it was, but if I were traveling with a thirsty child, and couldn’t get clean water for hours, I’d at least consider a little beer over water of uncertain quality. The last thing an already dehydrated kid needs is a case of diarrhea. Even a little buzz, IMHO, would cause negligible harm (if any) as an isolated incident. Regular use, especially to the point of intoxication, should be avoided, but I never noticed or read of any lasting effects in German children who drank beer occassionally. That’s not medical advice. It’s just an informed personal judgement of the risks. I always carried plenty of bottled water for the kids, but when traveling one is not always fully in control of one’s situation. I hope American readers will weigh the options, not reflexively react in puritanical fashion, as we tend to do when children are involved. ---
**Author:** ![Vision\_of\_Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884/20 "2003-12-05T07:20:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissa \* > \*\*Why is it “sick” to give a child alcohol? I’ve heard the French sometimes give their children wine with dinner. Now, getting a child drunk is another matter, but really, what’s _wrong_ with giving a child a little wine, or letting them taste a beer? Is it just a matter of culture? \*\* I thought it was “sick” that he would knowingly let me sip beer as a very young child for amusement purposes, knowing that it could be harmful for me. If my dad had found out when I was a little kid I’m sure he would’ve been furious. Thanks for the replies everyone. I’m not worrying myself about it anymore… it was probably a few sips anyway (I have always hated the taste of any alcoholic beverage and that one incident of me that I remember sipping it, I clearly remember being so disgusted I probably didn’t take any more). And besides, any minor “brain damage” it might have caused probably would’ve been undone, right? At least my brain still had several more years to develop… Or is my logic wrong? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-found-out-my-drunk-uncles-used-to-give-me-alcohol/216884.md?page=2)