Online retailer Perpetual Kid has started listing the ‘Li’l Lager Baby Bottle’ on its website.
Perpetual Kid says ‘Double takes are guaranteed when your kid starts knocking back their favorite beverage with our hilarious Chill, Baby Lil’ Lager Baby Bottle. Lil’ Lager, you’re a trouble maker in the making!’
The bottle does not contain beer, but George F. Koob, Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said he is concerned such bottles could give youngsters certain impressions about alcohol consumption.
“The expectations kids form regarding the positives and negatives of alcohol use contribute to their decisions about alcohol later in life,” he said.
“A baby probably would not make the association between the baby bottle and beer bottles, but older children in the house might. So we would argue this could be an indirect promotion of underage drinking.
“More important than the shape of the baby bottle are the ways in which parents model alcohol use for their children as they grow and the messages they send through their own alcohol use, conversations, and family policies.
“We do not support any direct or indirect promotion of underage drinking, even in babies.”