My Stepchild’s Mother Gave Her Antibiotics Without A Prescription.

My stepchild’s mother gave her antibiotics for an infection she had on her leg. Over this past weekend my stepdaughter notified me and her dad about a bump on her leg. Dad and I were out of town so dad told mom she needed to be seen by a doctor. Dad had MRSA a few times this past year so we knew it was some form of skin infection and would likely need antibiotics. At first mom was not into getting her seen and then said she was handling it and had a telehealth appointment for her. We would have rather her be seen in person but we were out of town and she was being seen so there wasn’t much we could do.

She comes back to our house Monday and her pills are in a ziploc bag. She also has a topical steroid to apply. Mom wrote the instructions for both pills and cream on a piece of notebook paper. We thought it was odd but thought maybe she sent them like that so we had some at our house and she had some at her house, which in hindsight wouldn’t make sense because we had too many for the amount of time she was to be at our house. Her mother sent her to school with them in a ziploc bag.

So today my stepdaughter notices her leg looks bruised at the infection site. I look into it and end up sending a photo of it to our pediatrician, my stepdaughter’s usual doctor. We usually handle all medical but we were out of town. Our pediatrician recommended we come to the ER tonight and do not wait to come tomorrow. We are here currently.

Around 3pm today I asked her mother for the prescription so I could add it to our MyChart so we have her medications listed. I tried to get information out of her for three hours. She does not have a prescription. The ER nurse said she checked the entire database and she has nothing. Her mother lied and gave us a pharmacy after three hours and we called and they have nothing either. She didn’t have any doctors notes or proof of appointment because there wasn’t one. She somehow got antibiotics or either had them and administered them to my stepdaughter. Mom and dad have joint custody with us being the custodial parent. Both have equal say on medical which means she needs to disclose important information with us when we ask in a timely manner.

Currently at the ER and someone from the hospital listened to our story and told me I could file a report with DCF. They said I could also file a police report. Our goal isn’t to necessarily get her in trouble, idk she gave her kid pills without a prescription which is not good. We just don’t want her to be exposed to her mother if she is going to ignore her health and not see a doctor. We have Medicaid so the visit and medication would be free so why wouldn’t you have her been seen by a doctor. She’s trying to say “my daughter was sick and I helped her” but she didn’t. She had the wrong cream and the wrong amount of meds and never took her to a doctor.

We plan on filing for emergency custody but what else should we do?