So asks John Cloud in the June 30 edition of Time Magazine. His premise: social-host laws and abstinence-only programs do not prevent teenage drinking and, may in fact be

encouraging kids to leave their homes (presumably by car) and drink in parks or abandoned warehouses or anywhere else they think they won't get caught and their parents won't get arrested.

Even moderate drinking increases a woman's risk of breast cancer, according to a story in the Washington Post.

A recent Harvard study of 878 people found that nearly two-thirds of drinkers and about a third of teetotalers considered such imbibing to be safe and healthful. So healthful that about 30 percent of those surveyed said the purported health benefits of alcohol are one reason they drink.

The link between alcohol and breast cancer is something that "almost nobody in the study had heard about," says the survey's lead author, Kenneth Mukamal, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Only 10 percent correctly identified breast cancer as a possible risk of moderate drinking, the researchers reported in the journal Family Medicine.

I, too, thought an occasional glass of wine -- although I tend to drink like once a month, if that, at this point -- was good for me. Remember all the hoopla surrounding red wine's benefits for the heart? As it turns out alcohol consumption is so potent that it can catch  up to you later on in life, according to the Post.

These results offer a cautionary note for younger women and underscore that it's never too early to go easy on alcohol. The researchers tracked nearly 10,000 women for 27 years. They found that the amount of alcohol the women consumed when the study began, rather than after menopause, correlated best with their breast cancer risk nearly three decades later.

If women do drink, there's widespread agreement that they should avoid having more than one drink per day. (A drink is 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits such as whiskey, tequila or vodka.) Just that amount of alcohol translates to "about a 10 percent increased risk of breast cancer," says Eric Rimm, an associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

This story is one of those health myth-debunkers that is good to know.

Wired magazine's "Mr. Know-It-All" recently answered a letter regarding drinking and nursing. "Stressed-out mom of a newborn" has found herself craving cabernet, but she is nursing. Is it safe for her to drink?

Mr. Know-It-All's response:

Caution is certainly called for, as hooch does, indeed, seep into a kid's nutritional supply. The good news is that an occasional glass of wine shouldn't be a problem, as long as you don't have another feeding slated for a while. The effects of liquor vary widely according to a drinker's weight and metabolism, but a general rule of thumb is that the concentration of alcohol in breast milk peaks around 60 minutes after ingestion. Play it safe: Wait two to three hours per drink before nursing Junior.

You want to be extra cautious, however, if your breast monkey is less than 3 months old; the youngest livers have a tough time metabolizing alcohol. It's also prudent to avoid the more potent vintages--zinfandels tend to have a higher percentage of alcohol than Rieslings, for example. Check the label before pouring.

But what if there's a special occasion approaching and you'd like to celebrate with more than one tipple? First off, don't go crazy--breast-feeding with a hangover is as much fun as doing anything else with a hangover. More important, pump plenty of milk in advance, and be prepared to pump and dump--pump milk and throw it away--should your breasts become full before the alcohol clears your system. Milk alcohol level declines at the same rate as blood alcohol level, so whenever you're back to 100 percent sober is when you can safely nurse.

Bottom line: Enjoy a glass of wine, and don't panic. But you should probably wait to really tie one on till after your child has been weaned. Don't worry--at that age, they'll still provide plenty of reasons for you to need a stiff drink.

Makes sense. Then again, occasional -- versus regular -- alcohol consumption is probably a good idea for everyone -- not just nursing mothers.  

But, personally, I have never restrained from eating my favorite foods, including spicy or garlicky foods, or even drinking while nursing. While I did wait until my babies were older -- after the 3-month-mark sounds about right -- to have a very occasional glass of wine, I did not see a correlation between what I was eating or drinking and their behavior. Plus, I thought being a parent was hard enough that restricting my diet seemed rather cruel. I needed the calories!

For the record, I am in the process of weaning Eli because DH and I have a trip scheduled next month. It's only for a few days and my MIL will watch the kids. But it will be my first overnight stay without Eli.

She is 11 months old today. I am nursing her once every couple days and supplementing with formula. I actually feel good about it -- not depressed like I did with Ari. She was nursed two more months than Ari, and I am simply relieved to have survived the first year of babyhood. Whew!

A week ago, Sue in Queens asked us all How many kids do drugs? Well, if you’re talking about Australia, the answer is, a lot more than you want to see, and more children are developing health-threatening proclivities, according to this article in today’s The Age. Excuse me for doing a blatant cut-and-paste job, but the statistics are summed up as follows:

CHILDREN as young as 12 are seeking help for alcohol abuse as new figures from a major Melbourne drug treatment centre reveal a six-fold increase in cases of young people with drinking problems.

Some are drinking a slab of beer [NB: a slab is 24 cans of beer]Rachel or a bottle of spirits a day and have developed serious health problems such as cirrhosis of the liver or hepatitis C. Cannabis dependency has also risen sharply, with some children smoking it to block out the pain of abuse.

Youth workers from Victoria's biggest drug treatment service for under-21s, the Youth Substance Abuse Service, say alcohol and cannabis dependence are now more common than heroin addiction.

The new figures from the service come ahead of a separate report to be released today from the Australian National Council on Drugs, which will warn that 20% of 16 year-olds are drinking to harmful levels in any given week, while one in every 200 children aged 12 are drinking at harmful levels.

The ANCD report combined several major statistical studies on substance abuse for the first time. It warned that extra support for the family members of young substance abusers — including siblings — was needed.
Figures released to The Age show that the Youth Substance Abuse Service treated 776 cases of alcohol problems last year — up from 136 in 2002.
Cannabis cases rocketed from 608 to 1213, while heroin cases plummeted from 824 to 286.

The inhalation of toxic substances such as spray paint, glue and petrol (known as chroming) has also doubled.

And users are getting younger, with 12 to 15-year-olds accounting for 12% of all drug treatments — up from 9% in 2002

Most recently, students at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire cheered as Democratic presidential candidates Mike Gravel of Alaska and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio stated their support to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18.

While I have always favored lowering the drinking age -- after all, an 18-year-old can be drafted to war and many teenagers are dying in Iraq as we speak! -- I found a compelling argument in favor of it from all places…Beauty and the Geek.

In case you have not seen this cute -- and hilarious -- reality TV show on the WB, nine socially inept geeky guys are teamed up with nine airhead beauty queens to compete in challenges. The challenges usually involve testing the geeks on pop culture and grilling the beauty queens on politics and current events. At the end of the show, the winning couple -- usually the most transformed couple -- wins $250,000.

This season’s show, however, has a twist. This time one of the couples is a female geek and male beauty who I am rooting for. (The woman is really cool. Yeah, I am a geek.) Well, the male beauty -- a nightclub promoter named Sam -- won a challenge that involved debating another beauty (Shalandra) on whether we should raise the drinking age to 21. Debate Judges Susan Estrich and some conservative commentator awarded Sam the winner – and thus immunity for him and his partner from this week’s round of eliminations -- for this answer:

(I could not find an actual clip from the show so I will paraphrase.) Shalandra pointed out that when the drinking age was 18 more teens died from car crashes. Sam’s rebuttal was that most of these accidents were caused when teens from states, in which the drinking age was 21, drove to states where the drinking age was 18.

(Paraphrased) “If they could have drank in the safety of their homes, they would not have died in those crashes,” he said.

I never knew that. While I am not sure where that statistic came from -- the judges looked surprised and impressed -- other websites have debunked the notion that outlawing drinking for teenagers, or even more absurdly a 20-year-old, will save more lives. According to an FAQ on YouthRights.org:

Did raising the drinking age save 20,000 lives?

No. This is one of the most misguided and over used statistics circulated by the Youth Prohibitionist movement. The truth is, as researchers Peter Asch and David Levy put it, the "minimum legal drinking age is not a significant-or even a perceptible-factor in the fatality experience of all drivers or of young drivers." In an in-depth and unrefuted study Asch and Levy prove that raising the drinking age merely transferred lost lives from the 18-20 bracket to the 21-24 age group. The problem with the 20,000 lives saved statistic is that it looks only at deaths for people aged 18-20. This is like rating the safety of a car by looking only at the seat belt and ignoring the fact that the car frequently tips over while driving. Raising the drinking age may have reduced deaths 18-20 but resulted in more deaths among people 21-24. Raising the drinking age has not done its job, and its time we look at the problem of drinking and driving honestly to find better options for dealing with the problem.