Watching college-aged kids hovering over a beer keg while their peers chant, "Chug! Chug! Chug!" can be a disturbing site, but imagine how much more unsettling the site would be if the person consuming the alcohol were a 2-year-old boy. Well, such is the case with 2-year-old Cheng Cheng from China's Anhui province, who has been downing entire bottles of beer since the age of one. After developing a taste for wine and beer, the toddler has become addicted, refusing to drink juice, milk, or even soft drinks, instead clamoring for alcohol. He is now being called the world's youngest alcoholic.
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Cheng Cheng's parents have joked about the child's boozing habits, but doctors have warned them repeatedly that alcohol can be incredibly harmful to children since their organs are still developing. Worried about the toddler's alcohol consumption leading to life-threatening organ damage, Chinese authorities are now considering placing the child in foster care.
How in the world did Cheng Cheng hankering for beer start to brew? Well, when he was just 10 months old, his dad gave him a taste of wine to stop him from crying. Within months, he was offering the child sips of beer regularly. Before long, the toddler was hooked. His parents now claim that every time the child sees an alcohol bottle, he screams and cries for a taste–particularly when he sees relatives indulging during celebrations. In other words, while most kids scream for ice cream, Cheng Cheng shrieks for beer.
I'm not sure what Chinese authorities are pondering here. There's no excuse for allowing a child to consumer alcohol at all–much less in such a reckless and excessive fashion. It's not like Cheng Cheng can now go to AA meetings and earn sobriety chips! It's going to take some hard work and medical care to wean the child off alcohol–and, clearly, Cheng Cheng's parents will not be the ones taking such action. The tomfoolery that Cheng Cheng's parents have enabled should land them both a spot in prison, where they can drink all the nasty hooch they want.
Images via Thinkstock, metro.co.uk
