Can Early Alcohol Exposure Really Help Your Kids?

Time Magazine's article "Should Children Be Allowed to Sip Mommy's Drink?" describes a research study where parents and kids were surveyed with different questions on the topic of letting children taste alcohol at a young age.  Approximately 33% of third graders in the study reported that their parents let them sip alcohol. The argument these parents have is that if they deny their children access to tasting alcohol, then the kid will be more likely develop a drinking problem later on due to the appeal of it being forbidden. This article goes on to state that in actuality, the opposite may be true. Research suggests that drinking when younger can predict the use of alcohol when older. However, this research is often disputed by the parents that swear by an early introduction to alcohol. 

Jamie D. Roitman's research on the long term effects of alcohol in adolescences is just one more reason to be against letting children sip. The prefrontal cortex matures during adolescence, but this growth can be affected by the use of alcohol. These changes can influence multiple parts of executive function including things like level of impulsivity and inhibitory control. Roitman did many experiments comparing decision making skills in rodents that had been given the opportunity to access alcohol during adolescence vs. rodents that had not been exposed. The pellets containing alcohol were set in the cage, but not forced to the rodents. This allowed the rats the option to consume as much or as little of the alcohol as they wanted. The results of her experiments showed that adults that had consumed more alcohol in adolescence showed a poorer discrimination of probabilistic rewards. For example, all rats were given two levers: a 'risky' lever that would deliver multiple treats two times out of three and a consistent lever that gave only one treat every single time. The rats that had not been exposed to alcohol understood the risky lever would be the better option in the end and learned to choose it more often. The rodents that had taken alcohol when younger did not understand this and opted for the consistent lever.

In both male and female rodents, the amount of alcohol consumed as an adolescent correlated to the neural response in the Orbitofrontal cortex. In males, the more they had consumed, the less responsive their neurons were to any reward. Control females that had not been exposed had different neural responses to rewards of 1 pellet vs. 3 pellets. This ability decreased the more a rat had consumed alcohol when younger. Female rodents that had consumed more alcohol developed neurons that responded highly to any reward, regardless of size. Basically, her research proves that alcohol exposure when young can influence the way one's brain develops. This in turn can change the way the brain reacts to things, even as an adult years later. So as much as the parents may want to argue in favor of letting their young ones have access to alcohol, research states that the alcohol exposure could do more harm then good; It is best to not mess around prefrontal development.

References

Alexandra Sifferlin. “Should Children Be Allowed to Sip Mommy's Drink?” Time, Time, 20 Sept. 2012, healthland.time.com/2012/09/20/should-children-be-allowed-sips-of-mommys-drink/.