Dear Queenie,
A friend of mine had a baby a few months ago. The parents are both heavy drinkers. I have never seen them really drunk, but they do drink a lot, it seems to me, mostly beer.
What worries me is that I have seen them give the baby sips of beer. I mean, we were visiting and they were drinking as usual and the mother was holding the baby and she just fed him some of it like it was water or juice. That doesn’t seem right to me.
Queenie, should I say something?—Worried friend
Dear Worried friend,
Feeding alcohol to a small child can cause him/her to become an alcoholic and the dependency could start while the child is still very young. I suggest you do some research on the Internet about alcoholism in children, print out your findings and show the material to the parents.
The local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous might also be able to give you some information on the subject. And perhaps you could get an AA member to talk to the parents.
However, they may be in denial and choose to ignore your concerns.
