(DailyMail) - Parents who give their children small amounts of alcohol in the belief they are instilling a sensible attitude to drinking may unwittingly giving them a taste for booze, a leading psychologist had told MEPs.

Aric Sigman says that adults need to realise that alcohol is more damaging to the young brain and body.

And that studies show the earlier a child is introduced to drink, the greater their odds of becoming an alcoholic later on.

In a report to an EU think-tank on childhood and adolescence, Dr Sigman states it is ‘imperative’ that parents delay the age at they introduce their children to alcohol.

He says that ‘even in small amounts’, alcohol may have long-lasting effects on the young brain, which continues developing long after the body matures.

In the report commissioned by an EU working group on childhood and adolescence, Dr Sigman, a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, says parents are wrong if they believe that by giving their children small amounts of alcohol at home, they are teaching them to drink responsibly.