I read this, and without a diagnosis for the children, it's hard to say.

Most of the medications seem to be breathing treatments, and stopping them, as your brother has done, is potentially dangerous, and certainly NOT in the child's best interest. He (and you) are playing doctor, without knowing all the facts.

Perhaps your ex sister-in-law went through "hell" to get the kids stabilized so that they *could* run and play all day. She is fearful of the potentially tragic (sudden death) consequences of your stopping or failing to give the medication that enables breathing.

There is a saying in medicine -- "Breathing is good."

And a corollary, "Without oxygen, life itself is impossible."

That means giving heart compressions if the breathing is comprmised does little. Remember, in the ABC's it's AIRWAY, BREATHING, compression. 2 of the 3 are OXYGEN.

What scares me most about this post is that you would even *consider* stopping a medication as essential and lifesaving as albuterol simply because YOU think the children are over medicated.

In tihs case, unless your brother is a doctor, and has legal custody of the kids (which it seems he is not, nor does not) your ex sister-in-law is within in her right to sue him for endangerment and potentially remove his right for unsupervised visits. (I'm not a lawyer, but failing to give kids medicaitons such as breathing treatmens, insulin, tegretol, etc is not looked upon favorably by the courts.)

If you brother has partial custody, he can get his lawyers to make the ex bring the kids in for a second opinion. If the second agrees, he's potentially liable for not giving the kids the medicaitons (so it's a double edged sword). Same goes for if he does not have custody -- he can call CYF but risks losing ANY unsupervised contact if the second opinion supports the need for medications.

If the second opinion doesn't agree, then a third opinion and long court battle are potentially inevitable. But if the second opinion DOES agree.... you've publically posted his not giving needed/essential medications.

Be careful when dealing with children. Your *opinions* don't matter (right or wrong.) You need MEDICAL, LEGAL or other OFFICIAL support and documentations.

But, I must repeat here for EVERYONE, simply stopping life-sustaining medications (or any medication) because YOU feel it's not needed is just as evil, if not worse, than what you claim to be trying to prevent. Without knowing the child's (or anyones" full history, making a diagnosis based on your own OPINIONS is foolish and selfish, and potentially dangerous to the child (or other) medically and to you (legally).

Most children are UNDER medicated, because people feel they will "grow out of it" or other misguided impressions. Nothing magical occurs when a child turns 14 and becomes an "adult" in medicine, or at 18 just because they are legally an adult.

It's a continuum and transitions occur slowly.

Stopping ANY medication abrutptly is usually not good, and stopping chronic medications abruptly is usually bad.

Stopping medications like albuterol, flonase, claritin, etc abruptly can cause a REBOUND effect that will make the underlying disease (allergies, asthma, etc) WORSE, and potentially lead to tragic consequences.

>> Now she is threatening to sue him if he doesn't
>> give them the meds. He is seeking a second
>> opinion from another Dr, but she is against that
>> for some odd reason.

I have to side with your ex-sister-in-law on this, and against you and your brother UNLESS you have proof (medical, doctors, charts) that what you FEEL is wrong, really is.

Why she doesn't want the second opinion is potentially to prevent confusion in treatment, as a second opinion often makes things worse (a man with one watch knows what time it is, a man with two is never sure.). But, the *ONLY* action your brother should take is to push for the second opinion, and to give the medications as prescribed until he has some LEGAL recourse otherwise. If anything happens to the kids while in his care, for not giving medications, the consequences for him would be severe (not to mention to the children).

Just some thoughts for those reading this thread, as well. Do not take it into your own hands to stop or change medications without a FULL HISTORY and without medical advice and a doctor's orders (written). There is often more to the story than you know, and more to balancing medications for the best quality of life without risk of illness. I agree with this person, completely. -smithn