DUNDEE, Scotland – An eight-year-old girl was declared an alcoholic after she sought help for a "serious" drinking problem at a Scottish support center.
The girl, who grew up in a family of problem drinkers, was helped by an alcohol charity in Dundee, northern Scotland, after admitting that she drank regularly, local newspaper The Daily Record reported Monday.
Her case highlighted a pattern of childhood drinking in Scotland, where 120 children under 14 were hospitalized for alcohol-related conditions in a single medical district during the past year.
Kathryn Baker, of the Tayside Council for Alcohol, said childhood drinking is setting young Scots up for a lifetime of addiction.
"These young people not only place themselves at risk as a result of drunken behavior through unsafe sex, fights, accidents and acute alcohol poisoning, but are often laying the foundations for a pattern of heavy drinking, which they follow through into their late teens and beyond," she said.
Stay up-to-date on the biggest health and wellness news with our weekly recap.