Police: Mom Fed Daughter Applesauce Spiked With Prozac

Mom Tells Police Girl Couldn't Sleep

GREENWOOD, Ind. -- A Greenwood mother told police that she gave her 12-year-old daughter applesauce spiked with Prozac for about six months even though she knew the girl shouldn't take the drug without a prescription.
The Johnson County Sheriff's Department said Karen S. Walsh, 51, admitted giving the girl the drug when she was questioned on Wednesday.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Walsh told officers that the child had trouble sleeping and that she decided to administer the drug from her own prescription beginning in April 2007.
Police said the Department of Child Services notified them of the situation and that Walsh stopped giving her daughter Prozac earlier this month after DCS told her to stop.
Police said that Walsh was aware that Prozac can cause other medical conditions, such as an increase in suicidal thoughts, and should only be used with doctor's supervision.
Walsh told officers, "I knew the doctor would tell me to stop," when asked why she didn't seek medical care for the girl, according to the probable cause affidavit. "I was just trying to help her sleep and I guess I should not have done it."
Police said Walsh told them she gave her daughter about 5 mg of the drug every night and sometimes woke her up to make her eat the applesauce spiked with the drug.
Walsh was charged with neglect of a dependent, a Class D felony, after police contacted three physicians, each of whom told them that giving the child Prozac endangered her.