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A girl aged just six is thought to be one of the youngest in Britain to be rushed to hospital after drinking dangerous levels of alcohol.
She was one of 198 youths under 17 treated in hospitals in East Sussex in the past five years for drink or drug abuse, Freedom of Information figures have revealed.
The child was admitted to Eastbourne District General Hospital some time last year.
It is not known how she got hold of the alcohol or what she drank.
But health and welfare officers said they were investigating if the girl was in need of intervention by social services.
The revelations come less than a month after neighbouring Brighton and Hove Council told how its staff found a nine-year-old boy who was already an alcoholic living with his mother and three siblings.
The family was generating 13 complaints a month for menacing behaviour, lewd language, criminal damage and vandalism and anti-social behaviour.
Officers said he was drinking to cope with the chaos.
A Brighton and Hove survey revealed 58 percent of ten to 15-year-olds in the city had drunk alcohol.
It is part of a worrying national trend with around 36 children seen in casualty departments every day with alcohol-related illnesses.
In 2008/2009 almost 13 000 alcohol-related admissions of young people under 18 were recorded, with 9 000 receiving treatment for dependency — double the rate from five years before.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd of Cardiff University said: “Any emergency treatment for a child as a result of alcohol intoxication comes as a shock. Every report represents a sad story, a child in need and a teachable moment in a child’s family.”
There were 11 780 alcohol-related call-outs in London for under-18s at a cost of more than             £2,5 million.
West Midland Ambulance Service responded to 1 296 alcohol-related call-outs involving under-18s at a cost of almost £250 000.
The North East Ambulance Trust responded to just under 1 000 at a cost of £175 000. — Daily Mail.