Three-year-old is youngest alcoholic

A three-year-old child has been treated for alcoholism by staff at an NHS hospital.

The unnamed toddler, thought to be Britain's youngest alcoholic, was among 13 children aged 12 and under who were diagnosed as alcoholics by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust between 2008 and 2010.

The Trust, which runs hospitals in Birmingham, Solihull and Sutton Coldfield, said a further 106 teenagers aged 13 to 16 were treated for addiction to alcohol during the same period.

Health managers declined to give details of the three-year-old's condition due to patient confidentiality regulations.

A spokeswoman for the Trust said: "We treat alcohol abuse very seriously and have specialist teams and experts on hand who are there to treat young patients with alcohol-related problems.

"This enables us to provide the best possible care for our patients."